Currently Untitled
by majorfaxandfanglover123
Summary: Fang is an NBA player. Max is his biggest fan. Apparently they know each other. They are reunited, and ripped apart again. This is the story of their rekindled friendship, and possibly something more. Author no longer mysteriously missing. Chapter 9 up!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! This is my very first fanfic so I'm pretty darn nervous! Anyways, I hope that you really like it!!**

**-0000-0000-**

Fang's POV

Basketball practice was great today. I scored a lot of points. Not even our best defensive players, Iggy and Gazzy, ( Gazzy's real name is Zephyr, but we call him the Gasman or Gazzy for short. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out.) could stop me. Okay, I guess it's about time that I explain My name is Fang Ride. I'm 27 and the best player in the NBA. And, no, I am NOT bragging. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) calls me that. Frankly, it can really annoying at some points. I'm currently playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. Plus, my best friends Iggy and The Gasman are on the team too. Those two are major pyromaniacs. What can I say. It just seems to run in both of their bloodlines.

Right now, I was on my way home from the basketball court. As I'm walking past the old alley, I hear screaming. "Help! Somebody help me!" I quickly spun on my heel and raced into the alleyway. I may be tall and slim, which is perfect for basketball, but I am an awesome street fighter. As I raced towards the screaming, I saw a girl about my age with dirty blonde hair, pushed up against a wall. She had a black eye and a couple of bruises forming on her face. It was obvious that she had been putting up a fight. The man who had pushed her up against the wall in the first place, had a broken nose and was trying to stop the bleeding while swearing. I threw myself at the man, pulling him off of the women, and started pounding him with my fists. Then I kneed him in the place where the-sun-don't-shine. He fell over gasping and I kicked him the stomach one last time for good measure. As he lay there holding his stomach, I felt kind of bad for him. Then I remembered what he had been trying to do to that girl and all the pity I felt for this loser disappeared.

I turned around to face the girl. Her face was in awe as she starred at me. "Um, are you alright?" I asked uncertainly. She immediately blushed as she realized that her mouth was wide open. She closed her mouth and took a moment to compose herself. As I waited for her response, I swiftly looked her over. She seemed fine. The worst damage done was her black eye. Then I realized that she was standing there with only a blue bra on. I blushed and tossed her my sweatshirt seeing as her shirt was lying in the dirt torn to pieces. "Here," I said. "You need it more than I do." She caught it and quickly slipped it on, and I thought to myself, 'Damn she's hot! Even covered in bruises and blood.' Whoa, where did that come from! Oh well, it's true. "Thanks." she said, her voice rasping. She cleared her throat and stuck out her hand. "I'm Max. Maximum Ride. Nice to meet you." Max. The name suited her, seeing as she was pretty tough. I mean she broke that dude's noise, and pretty badly might I add. I don't think it'll ever be the same again after what she did to it. "Nice to meet you Max. I'm-" "Oh I know who you are. You're Fang Ride. I'm sort of like your biggest fan. It's nice to meet you." Her hand was soft in my callused one. "Man, I sure am lucky that you came along. Normally, I can take these sort of bastards, but I just wasn't paying attention." she said while looking at the man with disgust written all over her face. "Oh well I'm glad that I could help." "So am I." Then I realized that I've seen her somewhere before. Oh right! She was one of those girls that hangs out with Angel all the time. Angel is 22 and the Gazzer's little sister. She had curly blonde hair and the biggest blue eyes, just like her older brother. She was practically family.

"Hey, you're one of the girls who hangs out with Angel, right?" "Yeah, that's me." "Who are the other two?" I asked Max. "Oh, the Hispanic one is my younger half-sister, Ella, and the African American one is Monique, but everyone just calls her Nudge. Ella is 25 and Nudge is 24. Angel and them two are my best friends." "Cool. Well don't tell anyone this, but Iggy is like in love with Ella and Gazzy really likes Nudge." "Seriously!" she exclaimed. She seemed amazed and ecstatic. "Iggy Daniels and Zephyr Johnson like two of my best-friends!" "Yup." OMG! Whoa Nudge moment." "What do you mean?" I asked her, feeling confused. "Well you see Nudge really likes to talk so we call her the Nudge Channel. All Nudge, all the time." "Oh, I get it."

Me and Max talked for awhile after that and then I announced that it was time for me to go. We said goodbye to each other, and when I got home I realized that Max and I had been talking for two hours straight. Man, I never talk that long to someone I've just met, let alone a girl. Weird. I was so tired hat I just skipped dinner and went upstairs to my room. I turned on my IPod dock and turned up the music. The song 'Welcome to the World' by Kevin Rudolf was blasting through the speakers. It's my all time favorite song. That night I fell asleep happy, and for some reason, all of my dreams were filled with Max. Eh, who cares. I'll dwell on that fact later. Plus I liked her and I sorta missed her. I then remembered that she still had my sweatshirt. Maybe if I saw her again tomorrow, I'll ask her if I can have it back. And with that final thought I drifted off to dreamland.

**-0000-0000- **

Max's POV

Jeez, I have to be in shock. I mean I cannot have just met the best player in the NBA. But I did, and he's so nice and funny and hot and handsome and-Whoa! Bad Max! I just met him today! I shouldn't be thinking those sort of things about him! I mean sure I had had crush on him since like forever. I mean now that I know him a little better I just like him even more. I mean he so cut with his black hair swept to the side and his dark brown eyes are so deep and he's funny and I absolutely love his laugh and he's so handsome and- UGH! I'm doing it again. Jesus there must be something wrong with me. 'I know! I'm going into shock from what happened earlier and the only way for me to get over it is for me to think about Fang.' Pleased with my explanation as to why I couldn't stop thinking about Fang I started to go over what had happened before Fang had gotten there. I shivered because I realized that that had been an extremely close call today.

_Flashback_

_I was walking home when an extremely drunk dude strutted up to me. "Hey, baby. Wanna come with me?" His words were slurred together and he reeked of alcohol. "No thank you," I said feeling slightly uncomfortable "Come on! We'll have some together. We'll hang out over here and then head over to my apartment." "I said no." I told him coldly while trying to squirm out of his grip. "And I said come on!" He said yanking on my arm rather roughly. Ow! Why do drunk people have to be so strong! He dragged me over to the empty alley and pressed me up against a wall. Then he started to trail wet kisses down my neck. At the same time he took my shirt off of me. Then he started to try and get his hands under my bra. 'Okay' I thought to myself. 'That's the last straw' I kneed him in the stomach and he slapped me. I felt my anger rise and I let my body go with flow. I grabbed his head with one hand and slammed my fist straight into his nose. I heard a sickening crack and blood quickly started pouring from his face. He started to punch me and then he decided that his nose was probably more important. I then started screaming at the top of my lungs. "Help! Somebody help me!"_

_End of Flashback_

That's when Fang had showed up. And holy crap was I surprised. When he started fighting I was amazed by how smoothly his attacks flowed. After that, I practically fainted out of embarrassment when I realized that he had seen me standing there in nothing but a bra! But, then I saw something in his eyes. It was just a flicker and I don't think he was aware that he had felt when he saw me, but I saw lust in his eyes. I mentally smirked when I saw that because that meant that Fang Ride even thought that I had a great body. I mean I used to seeing that look from regular men (this happens to me at least once every 2 months by men who can't control their cravings towards my body. I was sort of expecting it to happen this month. I just didn't know when it would occur.) but I never thought that Fang Ride would like my body. I mean he must meet the most beautiful women all the time.

Anyways after that totally humiliating scene we chatted for some time and now here I am, lying on my bed thinking about just how sexy Fang was. He hasn't really changed since the ninth grade, but he's more outgoing than he used to be. But it would seem that he doesn't really remember me. He only recognizes me because I'm at every single one of his games and I always sit with Angel, Gazzy Johnson's little sister. And I cannot believe that he actually trusts me enough to tell me that two of his best friends have crushes on two of my best friends.

I hope that he plans on seeing me again. I mean I am wearing one of his sweatshirts. Man, it smells so good. Like the woods with just a hint of lavender and lilac. I'm wearing it right now. it's way too big on me but it's so warm and comfortable. If I wear it to bed tonight I probably won't have any need for a blanket. Speaking of a bed, I feel like I could just pass out of exhaustion.

I got out of bed and grabbed some pajamas. Then I walked into the bathroom and got changed. I brushed my teeth and put my hair into a ponytail and got back into the bed, still wearing Fang's sweatshirt. I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep, my dreams filed with a certain hot basketball player.

-0000-0000-

** Okay so how was it? Did ya like it?** **Hate it? Oh, and I guess you guys are wondering what Max meant about ninth grade. Well that will be answered in the 3rd chapter so please bear with me. And the 2nd chapter should be up soon. Oh yeah, and don't forget to review! Reviews make the world go round! See ya!!**

** -MFAFL123- (Majorfaxandfanglover123)- **


	2. The Next Morning

**So I was looking at the last chapter and I realized that it was like, Extremely short so I am gonna try to make this one a lot longer. Thanks so much to amjackson25, purplewing, and fangs#1girl(), for being my first reviewers. And thanks to rubyam, Maximum-and-Firestar-rule, purplewing again, and Music freak 96 to adding my story to their story alert and/or their favorite stories list. Also thanks to The Black Rose 1995 for encouraging my story before it had even been uploaded. It makes feel good.. **

**Disclaimer: Once again I still don't own Max Ride and once again I still wish I owned Fang.**

**Now on with the story. Peace! :)**

**-0000-0000-**

Fang's POV

The next morning I woke up fully rested and happy. Not to mention HUNGRY. I quickly grabbed a shirt and tossed it on (what? I like to sleep without a shirt on.), then raced downstairs.

I could smell bacon and eggs and my stomach growled. As I walked into the kitchen, I could hear someone laughing at me.

"Shut up Iggy." I mumbled. Okay I guess that I should tell you why Iggy is in my house, making breakfast for me.

Well, you see, it all started a couple of months ago. I was trying to make eggs for myself, because I was out of cereal.

Anyways, Iggy decide to come over early so that we could shoot some hoops. He came into the kitchen and sat on the counter. I turned to talk to him, and while we talked I forgot I had eggs on the stove.

That is, until the fire alarm went off. Hehe, oops? I grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it all over what would've been eggs.

After that little scene, Iggy burst out laughing. When he was done and only hiccupping, he told me that he would, from now until I learned how to cook properly, cook for me. So from then on he has been coming to my house early in the morning to make both of us breakfast and then we'd head outside to play some basketball.

Now back to present tense. "Come on Fang! That was the loudest one I've heard all week!" he said while laughing hysterically.

"Okay I guess it was really loud, but, come on! I didn't eat dinner last night!" After he had calmed down enough, he turned to face me.

"How come?" he asked. "Well, on my way home, I was walking past the old alley, and I heard screaming. So I ran in and saw a creep trying to-to... rape this girl who was our age! I couldn't just stand there, so I grabbed him and beat him up."

I told him everything and when I was done he said, "Oh okay, I understand. So Fang, was the chick hot?" Ah, good ole' Iggy. Always thinking' about whether or not the girl was hot. What a sexist pig!

"Well, I mean yeah, but-" "Whoa! The great Fang actually thinks that someone is hot!" he said interrupting me. "What'd she look like? Blonde? Curvy? Tall?"

"Iggy, hold the interrogation! She had dirty blonde hair, yeah I guess she had a great figure, and she was at least 5"8'." "Damn! She sounds really sexy!"

Iggy was way off. Max wasn't just sexy, she was beautiful for crying out loud! Whoa wait a minute. where did that little mental outburst come from?

"Iggy, she's also my biggest fan." "What!? You are so lucky man!" "Oh yeah, and she's also friends with Angel. The African-American girl that Gazzy likes is Nudge and the Hispanic girl that you like is Ella. Her name is Max."

"Wait, you mean she knows the Hispanic chic?! Well, then you can have Max. I want Ella!" "Igs, girls aren't toys! They're not something that you can trade whenever you want to! And, what do you mean I can have Max? I don't even like her like that! Plus, I just met her yesterday!"

"Come on Fang! I know you like her! Before you met her, I always used to see you stare at her at our games. And whenever you talk about her now, you get this dreamy look in your eyes. And who cares if you just met her? Get to know her a bit and then ask her out." "Fine, whatever."

Then I remembered something and smiled evilly. "Oh yeah, Iggy guess what?" "What?" "It just so happens that Max is Ella's half-sister. Her_ older_ half-sister. And she seemed very protective of her just from the way she talked about her. And yesterday she broke that guys nose pretty badly. I don't think it'll ever be the same again."

"Shit! Now I'll never have chance with her!" "Relax Ig! I was just messing with you!" I said as I started chuckling. Man! His face was priceless!

It had horror and terror written all over it as he imagined what would happen if he went out with Ella and Max didn't approve and then as he thought about how she would punish him. I would pay 10 bucks to see that again!

"I don't think that she would kill you. I mean she seemed pretty happy and excited when I told her of your undying love for her little sister-"

"You told her that I liked her little sis! Great! I'm officially the most pathetic man on earth. Thanks for destroying my pride Fang." he moped.

"What pride Iggy?" I teased him. "I think that the only thing that would provoke her to kick your skinny white ass, would be if you broke Ella's heart like all of those other girls."

There is one thing that none of Iggy's fans know about him. He's a player. And I don't mean that he plays sports. I mean that he's been known to date up to 7 girls at a time.

"Dude, I would never do that to Ella! I swear! I like her to much to do that to her!" Well, this sure is new.

He's never said that about any other girl. He doesn't even know her and he already really likes her. Or maybe he just likes her looks. I guess we'll find out so enough.

By this point we had both finished our breakfasts. "So, do you want to go shoot some hoops or do you want to go out someplace?" I asked him.

"Let's go out. I need to get some new shoes and a couple of shorts." "'Kay, we might as well pick up Gazzy." "Yup" he answered, popping the p.

I went upstairs and got changed into a pair of black basketball shorts, a plain black t-shirt, and pulled on some black and silver Nike Shox R5.

As I'm sure some of you have guessed by now, black is my favorite color.

"Okay, I'm ready let's go. I'll call Gazzy as soon as we're in the car." "Sure." Then we left the house and got into my 2010 Chevy Camaro. It was black with silver racing stripes. See, not everything is black.

About 10 minutes later, we were pulling up outside of Gazzy's house. When he got in the car, he greeted us. "Hey Fang, sup Iggy."

We said our hellos and he asked, "So Fang, why do look sorta tired?" Iggy answered before I could. "He was out late last night with his new lady friend." he said while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Iggy, shut up." "Whoa! You mean Fang has a girlfriend now!? Gazzy exclaimed. "No Gazzy, I don't have girlfriend. Iggy's just being his true perv self."

"Hey! That's not nice to say even if it is true! Plus, you know you want to go out with her Fang!" Iggy said persistently.

"Apparently, this girl is actually good looking to him." "Really? Wow, Fang! How does she look?"

"He said that she had dirty blonde hair, is slim, curvy, at least 5"8', and pretty tough. Oh, hey Fang you never told me what color hair does she have? Blue? Green? Gray?"

As I thought about it I realized that Max had had the most amazing eyes. They were chocolate brown, the exact shade of milk chocolate, and they were really, really deep. You could see all of her emotions in them.

"They were a chocolate brown, Iggy." "Hmm. That's kinda weird. Never knew blondes could have brown eyes."

"Who cares what color her eyes were. All that matters is that Fang likes her. Hey wait a minute, that sounds sorta like Angel's friend Max." Gazzy said.

"It is Angel's friend Max, Gazzy." I told him. "Wha-what?! You have a crush on one of my little sister's best friends?! he asked shocked.

"No." I said blushing slightly. What the heck! Why am I BLUSHING! I never blush. What is this girl doing to me!

"Ha! He's lying! See look you can tell 'cause he's blushing!" "I can honestly say that I do not, under any circumstances like Max Martinez!"

This time I managed to say it without blushing which made it a little more convincing. But they still looked suspicious.

"Whatever, I still think that you like her Fang." Gazzy told me. "Hey guys, I just remembered something. Since I like Nudge, and Iggy likes Ella, and Fang likes Max-"

"I don't like he-" "Fang just shut up and let me say what I was trying to say. Anyways since we all like someone in that group and Angel's going out with Ari from our basketball team, we can all have dinner together sometime soon. I used to feel guilty because Fang wouldn't have anyone to really talk to or hang out with, but now that he likes Max we can go ahead and do that!"

He seemed ecstatic and I really didn't want to burst his bubble, but I mean come on! Why do they keep saying that I like Max? I don't! I mean haven't I said at least 20 times that I DO NOT like Max Martinez. I guess that I'll just have to try harder to get the message through their thick skulls.

-0000-0000-

Max's POV

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I groaned and rolled over to hit the snooze button. Well, more like smashed the alarm and threw on the ground. Oh my god! It's still beeping!

"Shut the fuck up you goddamn annoying alarm clock!" At this point I was sitting up on my bed and glaring at the stupid piece of machinery. Can anything get more annoying?

I got up and stretched, hearing my shoulders and back pop. Aah, now that felt good. I stooped down and picked up the alarm clock.

Then I walked to the bathroom, turned on the sink and dropped it in. It short-circuited and sparks started coming out of it. Oh well, at least now I can get that IPod dock I wanted.

I walked over to the other sink and brushed my teeth and washed my face, feeling the cold water wake me up fully. Then I realized what I was wearing and yesterday's events flooded my memory.

Well, at least I had Fang's sweatshirt to comfort me. I lifted the collar to my nose and sniffed. Man, his sweatshirt smells really good! I sighed in relaxation and decided that it was about time that I had some breakfast.

I ran downstairs and into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl, some milk, and a box of Honey Bunches Of Oats, the best cereal in the world. It had honey and almonds in it. Yum.

Poured the milk and cereal into the bowl only to realize that I had forgotten a spoon. Dang it! I was SO HUNGRY. I sighed and got up to get a spoon.

As soon as I closed the silver ware drawer I heard the door open. "Morning Max." Ella said as she walked in. "Morning Els. What'd you get from the grocery store?" I asked her.

"Just some stuff to make a cake. Oh yeah, Angel called this morning. She wants us to come to the mall with her. I can't make it until 4 because of Kathy's surprise party, but I told that you could go." she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Kathy was one of Ella's many best-friends. But why did her mom have to have the birthday party today. And Why did Ella have to volunteer me for shopping today? She knows I hate the mall!

"Ella why must you torture me so?! You know I hate the mall!" "I know, but what will Nudge say when she's sees your wardrobe? You are in a terrible need for new clothes and Angel will be all alone at the mall if you're not there."

Dang her. She knows I hate it when ever Angel's alone at the mall and when ever Nudge gets on my case about my clothes. Plus I do actually need some new clothes. I hate logic.

"Fine" I sighed in defeat. "I'll go. But I will have my revenge." I threatened her. "I wouldn't expect anything less Max." she told me looking earnest. She knows me so well.

"What time does she want me at her house?" I asked. "12 sharp. She says that you guys will have to be there early before most of the crowd gets there."

I looked at the clock. It was eleven right now so I'd better start getting ready. "Okay, well I just go get ready then. Oh, and Ella?" "Yes." "Don't be mad at me if I come home with a new IPod dock, okay?"

"Max what'd you do to your alarm clock!" she yelled at me. I grinned at her. "It wouldn't shut up this morning when I threw it on the floor, so I dunked in the sink while it was full of water."

"Way to go Max. I got that for you for your birthday last year! Fine, but you're paying for it." "Okay." I replied cheekily.

Ha, I just love making Ella mad. She gets all red like a fire truck. She just looks so funny!

"Hey Max, where'd you get that sweatshirt?" Ella asked me as I made my way over to the stairs. "Uhh," I said not sure of how I'd tell her about Fang. "I'll tell you later okay?" "But-" "Bye Ella!" I said, hurrying to the stairs.

I went upstairs and took a shower, thinking about what Fang might have been doing at the moment. I bet he's still sleeping.

I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around myself, then walked to my room. I got some under garments on and then threw on some Boston Wash skinny jeans from dELiA*s (AN: I just luv that store! Practically all of my jeans are from there! Back to the story.).

Then I grabbed a black tank-top and a slightly see throughish shirt and put that on. It's spring time so today should be warm, but I grabbed my sweatshirt just in case it got cold all of a sudden.

I pulled a brush threw my hair, and then raced downstairs and grabbed the keys to my 2008 mustang.

"See ya at 4 Ella." I yelled to my sister. "'Bye Max! And by the time me and Nudge get there you better have gotten some nice clothes!"

"I will!" I yelled back. "Don't I always get nice clothes?" I called jokingly.

Then I was out the door and in my car. I turned it on and opened the sunroof and all of the windows. I was right. Today's temperature was perfect.

When I got to Angel's house, I walked up the pathway and rang the doorbell. Angel's house was just a little bigger than mine and was made from a nice cream colored stone.

A sleepy looking Gazzy answered the door. "Hey Max." he said while yawning. "Hey Gazzy. Angel up yet?"

"'Course she is. I don't know anyone else whose crazy enough to get up at five in the morning." he grumbled. "I know right?" I said, agreeing with him.

I walked into the house and walked up to Angel's room. "Knock knock." I called, tapping on the door with my knuckles. "Come in!" a sweet voice answered.

I walked into Angel's room and shielded my eyes with my hand, pretending to go blind. Even though she was 22, Angel still loved the colors pink and purple. So naturally, everything in her room was either pink or purple.

Angel was lying on her stomach on her bed going through a fashion magazine. "Hey Angel." "Oh, hi Max! I thought it was Gazzy at the door. I wasn't really paying attention to whose voice it was." she said looking up.

"That's alright. So wanna leave for the mall right now so we can get this over with?" "Sure." she replied, hopping off of her bed. "Just let me grab my jacket."

"I don't think you'll need it. It's pretty darn warm out." "I'll bring it just in case then." She walked over to her closet and pulled out a nice looking blue jacket. "Wow, is that new?" I asked her.

"Yup, Nudge got it for me." "It's really pretty." "Thanks. Okay I'm ready. Oh and by the way, love the outfit! It fits your figure really well!" "Uh, thanks? That was a compliment, right?" I asked uncertainly.

"Of course! Why would I insult one of my very best friends whose practically my older sister." she answered with a dazzling smile. "Thanks Angel." I said hugging her. "You're welcome. Now let's get to that mall!"

"Okay." I said sulking at the prospect of going to that rotten hellhole. "Oh, come on Max! Cheer up! I swear, I WILL NOT make you try on anything that is pink, purple, or skirt-like." "Okay, that sounds like a good deal."

As we walked out the front door I yelled a goodbye to Gazzy. "See ya Gaz! I'll Have her home by 7 'kay?" "Okay! See ya later!" he called back.

We walked out the door and got into my blue mustang. When I started up my car, Angel immediately put on Q 102.1. They were just starting Tik Tok by Ke$ha. Me and Angel started laughing and singing along.

_Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy  
(Hey, what up girl?)  
Put my glasses on, Im out the door - Im gonna hit this city (Lets go)  
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack  
Cause when I leave for the night, I aint coming back  
Im talking - pedicure on our toes, toes  
Trying on all our clothes, clothes  
Boys blowing up our phones, phones  
Drop-toping, playing our favorite cds  
Pulling up to the parties  
Trying to get a little bit tipsy_

[CHORUS]  
Dont stop, make it pop  
DJ, blow my speakers up  
Tonight, Imma fight  
Til we see the sunlight  
Tick tock, on the clock  
But the party dont stop no  
Woah-oh oh oh  
Woah-oh oh oh

[Chorus]  
Aint got a care in world, but got plenty of beer  
Aint got no money in my pocket, but Im already here  
Now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger  
But we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger  
Im talking about - everybody getting crunk, crunk  
Boys trying to touch my junk, junk  
Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk  
Now, now - we goin til they kick us out, out  
Or the police shut us down, down  
Police shut us down, down  
Po-po shut us -  
Dont stop, make it pop  
DJ, blow my speakers up  
Tonight, Imma fight  
Til we see the sunlight  
Tick tock, on the clock  
But the party dont stop no  
Woah-oh oh oh  
Woah-oh oh oh

Dont stop, make it pop  
DJ, blow my speakers up  
Tonight, Imma fight  
Til we see the sunlight  
Tick tock, on the clock  
But the party dont stop no  
Woah-oh oh oh  
Woah-oh oh oh

DJ, you build me up  
You break me down  
My heart, it pounds  
Yeah, you got me  
With my hands up  
You got me now  
You gotta that sound  
Yea, you got me  
DJ, you build me up  
You break me down  
My heart, it pounds  
Yeah, you got me  
With my hands up  
Get your hands up  
Put your hands up

No, the party dont start until I walk in

Dont stop, make it pop  
DJ, blow my speakers up  
Tonight, Imma fight  
Til we see the sunlight  
_Tick tock, on the clock  
But the party dont stop no  
Woah-oh oh oh  
Woah-oh oh oh_

Dont stop, make it pop  
DJ, blow my speakers up  
Tonight, Imma fight  
Til we see the sunlight  
Tick tock, on the clock  
But the party dont stop no  
Woah-oh oh oh  
Woah-oh oh oh

The next song was Love Struck by Vfactory. "I love this song!" I said to Angel. "Me too!" she yelled back.

You got my attention when you make that move (ah ah)  
Can't help it 'cus I'm stuck like glue (why why)  
Am I the only one to see  
Girl I really want to get that get that  
rush n' no doubt about it  
Who can do it like you do it when you do  
So hooked up on you like a tattoo  
I'm serious about it  
Girl I really want to get that get that  
rush n' no doubt about it

I'm craving for you and just like a fool  
There's no way I can stop stop stop my desire  
I'm craving for you and you know it too  
There's no one that can top top top your smile  
(Girl you got me)  
Love struck (you got me)  
Love struck (girl you got me)  
Love struck, oh oh oh oh (girl you got me)  
Love struck (you got me)  
Love struck (girl you got me)  
Love struck, oh oh oh oh

I, I, I love it when you give me that smile  
I've, I've, been waiting for this a long time  
My, my, my premonition is telling me try  
Girl I really want to get that get that  
rush n' no doubt about it  
I have to give you credit for your style  
and the way you rock that dress is so wild  
I got to give it up 'cuz  
girl I really want to get that get that  
rush n' no doubt about it

I'm craving for you and just like a fool  
There's no way I can stop stop stop my desire  
I'm craving for you and you know it too  
There's no one that can top top top your smile  
(Girl you got me)  
Love struck (you got me)  
Love struck (girl you got me)  
Love struck, oh oh oh oh (girl you got me)  
Love struck (you got me)  
Love struck (girl you got me)  
Love struck, oh oh oh oh

Yeah you got me like a puppet on a string  
I can't stop it, girl you make my head spin  
and just like a fool  
There's no way I can stop stop stop my desire  
I'm craving for you and you know it too  
There's no one that can top top top your smile  
I'm craving for you and just like a fool  
There's no way that can stop stop stop my desire  
I'm craving for you and you know it too  
There's no one that can top top top your smile  
(Girl you got me)  
Love struck (you got me)  
Love struck (girl you got me)  
Love struck, oh oh oh oh (girl you got me)  
Love struck (you got me)  
Love struck (girl you got me)  
Love struck, oh oh oh oh to me.

When the song ended we were driving into the parking lot of the mall. I parked near the JCPennys and we got out and walked into the store.

We went through the whole shoes section and the women's section. We found a couple of things for Angel and she went ahead and tried them and bought them.

But there was nothing for me at that store. So next we hit Pacsun and I got some colored skinny jeans. I got dark blue, white, scarlet, and a forest green.

After that we went to Areo and I got a couple of nice tops. My favorite one was a low cut black top that I could wear with a white cammie inside.

We hit a couple more stores and I finally decided to check my watch. Holy mother of all that is good!(That sounds funny doesn't it?) It was already 3 o'clock! Holy crap how do you spend 4 hours at a mall without noticing?!

And now I have another 4 hours left in this hellhole! It's finally official. I hate my life.

-0000-0000-

**Hey guys! So, I tried to make it longer and I hoped it worked! OH MY GODS! I just saw Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging and the guy who plays Robbie, Aaron Johnson, is the hottest guy I've ever seen. Well, that is, besides Fang. I mean, who doesn't like Fang. He's just amazing. He's smart, sweet, and he's got a great personality. But I still think that Logan Lerman and Aaron Johnson are hot. I have a right of speech! Anyways, I hope you found this chapter a great read!(What I couldn't come up with anything!)** **Oh, and sorry about my language! And the little sentence in the parentheses that comes after the holy mother of sentence, was part of Max's thoughts, not an author's note. I hope I cleared up some of your questions. Oh yeah, before I forget! I need ideas for a title people! Thanks!**

**Peace Out Suckers!**

**-MFAFL123-(MajorFaxandFangLover123)-**

**P.S. Fang and Max meet again in the next chapter and something surprising happens!**

**Okay! Bye!**


	3. The Mall

**Sup peoples. Fax and Fang lover here. Any ways I'm super sorry. I was originally planning on making this a double POV chapter but then I realized that it was already super long so I took Max's POV and am saving it for chapter 4. Well, whatever I already have typed up.**

**Okay for the double POV thing sometimes it'll be Max and Fang and sometimes it'll just be one of the two. As for ages, I'm gonna make them all a little young 'kay? Fang-23, Max-23, Iggy-23, Ella-22, Gazzy-22, Nudge-21, and Angel-20. And Max's last name is Martinez not Ride. That was just a total fluke. Okay here comes the disclaimer. WOOT WOOT!!**

**Disclaimer: JP owns all of the characters but the plot is mine. MINE I tell you! MINE! **

**-0000-0000-**

**Fang's POV**

When we got to the mall, it was jam-packed. I guess that would be because it's a Saturday. As I looked around, I saw a group of girls checking me out. They caught me looking at them and two of the girls walked over.

Guess they were the leaders or something. They both wore flirty smiles and clothes that were way to revealing for my taste.

When they got over to us, one of the girls said, "Hey my name is Lisa and this is my friend Brigid. Wanna get something to eat with us?"

Ugh, her voice was extremely annoying and so high pitched that it hurt my ears. Me, Iggy, and Gazzy all shared a glance and each of our faces had disgust written all over them.

I turned back to face the girls and plastered a fake smile on my face. "No thanks. We ate before we left."

"Are you sure?" the other girl, Brigid, asked us. She was the most decent of the two and she still looked like a slut.

"Yeah, we're sure." Iggy answered. "Okay, I guess I'll see ya around." Lisa said, with yet another flirty smile.

After they left, Gazzy shuddered. "God, I never want to see people who dress like that again." "Me neither." Iggy said. I nodded my agreement.

Just then I heard someone calling our names. I turned and saw a steak of blonde hair racing towards us. Seconds later the so called blonde fluff head had reached us and tackled me into a hug. It was Angel.

"Hey Angel." "Hi Fang! How come you're at the mall? I thought you hated shopping?" she asked me, her big blue eyes looking questioningly into my dark brown ones.

"I do but Iggy here had to get some new clothes. Who are you here with?" "My friend Max. She hates shopping just as much as you do so I had to drag her through like every store. But she got the hottest skinny jeans."

My head snapped up at the mention of Max's name. Angel continued rambling so I ignored her, thinking. Max was here? Where?

I searched the sea of heads looking for a familiar dirty blonde one. And there she was, walking towards us with a sheepish look on her face.

"Hey Max." Angel said easily. She twisted out of my hug and went to go stand beside Max. Then she looked between us and said, "Well? Aren't you two going to say hello to each other."

That snapped me out of my shock. "Hey Max." "Hey Fang. How's it going?" "Good." At that exact moment Iggy decided to elbow me in the gut. I winced and rubbed the spot where he had hit me. That had hurt!

Then I introduced them to Max. "Max these are my best friends Iggy and Gazzy. But I'm sure you already know Gazzy." "Yup. Hey Gazzy, nice to meet you Iggy."

Then she looked him up and down, as if sizing him up. "So, you're the one who likes my little sis, huh. I guess you're okay."

Hmm, she sounded kinda bored. Weird, she was practically jumping up and down with excitement yesterday. She probably still was. Maybe she's just acting this way to make him nervous.

Then I realized that everyone was laughing at Iggy. Wow, zone out much. I turned to see why and saw Iggy blushing about 60 different shades of red. I never even knew that was possible, but anything is possible when it's Iggy.

Ha. She embarrassed him. Way to go Max! Wait a minute.... "Max!" I whined. Yeah I know. Me, Fang, whining. What has this world come to?

She turned to me, looking amused. The emotion seemed to make her face brighten up quite considerably. She looked beautiful with her eyes sparkling and her mouth turned up into a breath taking smile.

"Yes Fang?" she asked me chuckling slightly. "It's my job to embarrass Iggy." "Well then, I suppose we'll just have to share that job now won't we?"

"I guess so. But it's my turn next time." I said keeping up the whining tone as I walked over to her a hooked my arm through hers. I looked at her only to see her blushing.

It took me a moment to realize why she was blushing and when I finally did get it I started blushing as well.

"Ha! Look at that! He embarrassed Max and himself at the same time!" Iggy exclaimed. "What I'm not allowed to touch my new friend's arm?" I shot at him.

I heard a gasp and I looked over at Max guessing that it had come from her. "What?" I asked her confused. "Well it's just that you're the best player in the NBA and I'm just some random girl you, er, ran into yesterday and now you want to be friends with me of all people. I just find that hard to take in."

"Oh, so you're saying that just because I'm some big sports star, I can't have a normal life? Huh." I huffed. Jeez, I'm good at something and then whenever I try to become friends with normal people this is what happens. I mean come on people!

"No that's not what I meant at all. It's just I never thought that I'd become friends with my favorite basketball player." Oh so I'm her favorite. I wonder why....

"So, Max, why am I your favorite basketball player?" I asked her innocently. I was the most popular with ladies because, well, I guess they all liked my body. I sincerely hoped that Max fell under this category.

"You're my favorite player because you're a great basketball player, you're nice to all of your fans, apparently you're an awesome friend to those whom you are friends with, and, um, well, you see..." she stopped for a moment and started blushing.

'Hmm, I wonder why?' I asked myself sarcastically. She mumbled something incoherently and looked down at her feet. "What did you say? I didn't quite catch that." I asked her cupping a hand around my ear.

She mumbled her answer again, this time just a fraction louder. "Could you repeat that again, but a little bit louder?" I asked her one last time.

She glared at me and yelled "Fine! I like you because you have great body! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!" "Why, yes Max, yes I am," I said smugly to her. I knew she liked my body. Then something occurred to me.

"Wait, does that mean you don't like me for all of that other stuff?" I asked her, feeling slightly downcast. If she just liked me for my body then she was just like all of those other girls.

"Of course I like you for all of that other stuff, Fang! I mean I am NOT one of those girls who like a guy just for a the way they look. I'm not shallow!"

This made me feel happier, and upon seeing this Max smiled again. I looked around and said to the others, "Okay, I swear, if you make fun of me for doing what I'm about to do, I will kill you all in your sleep."

They all agreed not to make fun of me, so I turned around to face Max and hugged her. She froze at first but then her arms came around my waist. I'm not much of a hugger so she'd better savor this while she could.

Hugging Max just felt so right. Her body molded perfectly to mine and she felt really soft and warm against me. I rested my chin on her shoulder since she was just a couple of inches shorter than me.

"Thank you," I whispered in her ear. "You have no idea of how many girls I knew only liked me because they liked my body and because they thought I'd be good in the bed."

I shivered at the memory of a certain girl who had been really persistent at trying to get me in the bed. That was one creepy stalker. Max felt me shiver and tightened her grip on me.

"You're welcome," she said with her head resting on my shoulder as well. "Hey Fang," she whispered to me. "Yeah?" I asked her. "I never knew you were such a big hugger." she told me.

I chuckled softly and answered her. "I'm not. This was special. The only person who can get hugs from me is Angel. And even then it's not that often."

She turned her head to look at me and pouted. She looked cute when she did that so I laughed. She pouted even more and asked me, "So if I want a hug I have to either be Angel, or beg for it?"

Her lips were a couple of inches away from my mine and I wanted so badly to touch them and kiss them but I knew that I couldn't. I didn't want to ruin our new found friendship and besides the others were still here.

"Yup." I said answering her and tearing my eyes away from her lips. I wanted her so very badly but I didn't want things to get awkward between us just because I couldn't control myself.

I gave Max one last squeeze and turned to face the others. Iggy and Gazzy were shocked. They had never seen me hug someone beside Angel before so this really surprised them.

Angel had this knowing look in her eyes as she looked at the both of us. She walked over to Max and whispered something in her ear.

Max gave her a hard look and shook her head furiously while changing a million different shades of red. Wonder what that was about.

Iggy finally got over the little hugging scene and decided to pipe up right then. "Hey Max? I know that this is a little awkward, but how would you like to go on a date with Fangy boy over here?"

Iggy is so dead. "Igs, I said no. What part of that did you not understand?" I asked him stiffly. "Plus Iggy, considering that he is now one of my new friends I think that that would be a little awkward. I mean it's not like I wouldn't want to go on a date with Fang, but come on, I don't want to ruin our friendship."

I froze. Wait, does that mean that Max does want to go on a date with me? I hoped so. "Hey you guys wanna hang out with us today. Nudge and Ella will be here later." Angel asked us, pleading with her big blue eyes.

I couldn't help it. I caved. I can't resist the bambi eyes! And I wanted to get to know Max a little bit better, and I'm sure that Iggy and Gazzy would want to hang out with Nudge and Ella as well.

So we went and got Iggy's shorts with the girls and on our way to find him some shoes , I started up a conversation with Max.

"So, Max, have you lived up here in Philly for your whole life?" "No. I used to live back up in Doylestown." "Really me too. 'Course then I had to move down here after 10th cause of my dad's new job. What schools did you go to?"

"Um, Coldspring for elementary school, Holicong for middle school, and East for high school." "Same!" I replied shocked. How could we have gone to the same school and I didn't remember who she was?

Just then I had a flashback all the way back to 9th grade.

_Flashback_

_I was walking down the hallway, heading to Mrs. King's class for social studies while admiring my new shoes. _

_They were converse all-stars. the material on the outside was white, but the tong was black along with the_ _stitching. The rubber parts were black and the racing stripes were white. A classic black and white theme. They looked beastly._

_Just then I felt myself run into a soft body. I fell backwards with that somebody on top of me as I looked up I saw that it was a girl in my grade. Okay not just any girl. My secret crush Maximum Martinez._

_She looked at me and her chocolate brown eyes seemed to be able to see into my soul. We stayed in that position for a good five minutes, with her lying on top of me and staring into each other's eyes. _

_With any other girl this would have been awkward, but not with Max. Somehow, this just felt right (and not like that for all of you pervs out there.) Then she seemed to realize the position we were in and she blushed and got up and off of me. I got up too._

_"Sorry. I just wasn't paying any attention to where I was going. I was too busy trying to sort out my stuff for math." "That's okay. My name's Fang Ride. What's yours?" I already knew what it was but I didn't want to seem like a stalker. So I asked her._

_"Maximum Martinez. Hey, weren't you in my 5th and 6th grade classes?" she asked me, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Um, I think so." Oh, so I knew. My crush had started in the 5th grade! But I had to play it cool._

_"Well, it was nice to see you again." "Yeah, you too." "See ya later?" she asked me. "Sure." I replied shrugging one shoulder. " 'Kay. Bye." "Bye." As she left, I thought to myself 'I'm gonna ask her to freshmen dance.'_

_End of Flashback_

And I would've too. But then Sam Goodman showed up, and he asked her out, and I would think to myself 'Why would she want to go out with a loser like me when she could go out with the captain of the football team.

I would guess that that was when I started getting good at basketball. Guess depression did me some good after all.

The friends I had all encouraged me to try out for the team so I did. I got on and our team had a lot good players on it and we went undefeated all season.

After the first half of the season, girls started to come after me, and at first the attention felt good. But then they started to stalk me. I got creeped out really badly, so I just asked out some random girl.

That girl was Tess Morgan. She was my first and worst girlfriend. She dressed like a slut all the time, she was rude to other girls, and treated me like dirt (not to mention that she was always trying to shove her tongue down my throat!) After about 2 months of putting up with her crap I dumped her. Oh sure she yelled at me, threw her stuff at me, and tried to hurt me, but, hey, I was a FREE man!

While I was dating Tess, I didn't really see Max around school anymore. I started to feel like she was avoiding me, so I made myself forget about her and focus on basketball. It worked. Well, for the most part.

Sometimes I found myself unknowingly staring at her or thinking about whenever she had smiled at me, or the day we ran into each other and she fell on top of me. I remembered the way I felt around Max and then compared it to the way I felt when I was around Tess. Max= happy and easygoing. Tess= disgusted violent towards Tess and hateful towards Tess. Guess who won?

I guess that that would be what drove me to dump Tess in reality. That all happened in my junior year. I had been known as the best player in the whole school. But then my dad got a job offer and I had to move down to Philly where I live now. I kept in touch with all of my friends, and eventually Iggy and Gazzy got offered spots on the Sixers and they moved down too.

Back to the present folks. Memory lane has been shut down for the rest of the day. Have a nice day! "So, what happened after I moved down here?" I asked Max, truly wondering. I mean sure I had heard stuff from the Gasman and Iggy, but I wanted to know from Max's point of view.

"Well, where shall I start? Oh, I know! After you left the team lost almost every game and everyone was pretty mad at your dad for taking that job. I guess that since everyone depended on you so much, and that no one expected for you to leave, no one really bothered to properly learn how to play the game. They were all too lazy." she said with a frown.

I laughed at that, not doubting her for a moment. "What happened in your life?" I asked her prompting her to tell me about her high school years after I left.

"Um, I got onto the soccer team and was the best player on the team and me and Sam started to get more serious. But then I dumped him because he only went out with me because he wanted to have sex with me. When I told him no, he backed off, but then I found out that he had been cheating on me for three months with your ex-girlfriend, who had been cheating on you when you two were going out for a month."

I didn't particularly care that Tess had been cheating on me. But I was shaking with anger as I heard what that miserable excuse for a sports player had done to her.

Max saw this but she thought that I was upset about Tess. She put a comforting arm around my waist and gave me a quick sorta side hug.

"I'm sorry about what she did to you. But don't worry. She was just a lying cheating asshole of a slut." I flashed her a quick smile and she beamed at me.

"Oh I'm not upset about Tess. I'm just mad because I knew Sam and I should have told you how big of a player he was. After all, he was my best friend from grades 2 till & and in 6th grade he cheated on 8 girls all at the same time and none of them found out until the end of the year when they all found out he'd just been using them all to get his real goal. So, I guess it's kinda my fault." I told her frowning.

She just looked at me blushing and staring at me in awe. "What?" I asked her shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.

"Well, first of all I never knew that you could speak so much at one time. Second of all, I didn't know you cared so much about how my ex-boyfriend treated me," then her gaze turned to one of tenderness, and she smiled softly at me. "Thirdly thank you for saying what you did. It made me feel better. Honestly."

I blushed. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why the frick am I blushing again. This is, what, the 4th time. What the hell is this girl doing to me!?

Just then we arrived at the Sports Authority store and went to look for Iggy's shoes. He got some pretty nice ones. They were black under amours with lines of silver in the middle area on the outer sides with a gold sign in the middle of all of the lines. **(AN: Iggy's and Fang's shoes are on my profile.)**

After that we headed to some of the stores the girls wanted to go to. Oh, okay, mostly the stores Angel wanted to go to, seeing as Max had already done her shopping and that she'd rather be burned at stake that get anything else from the mall.

Max and I talked some more, asking questions about who our favorite actors/actresses were and what our favorite colors were and a all of that crap.

I found out a lot about Max that afternoon. Her favorite colors were royal blue and dark purple, her favorite book was Witch and Wizard by James Patterson and she was desperately awaiting the arrival of the second book, which was coming out in December. She had also heard that he was making a new series about six winged children who were on the run from evil scientists and trying to save the world at the same time. 

Her favorite sports players were me and Mia Hamm, seeing as she was also a big soccer fan. Her favorite actors were Paul Walker from the Fast and Furious series, Vin Diesel, who was also from Fast and Furious, and Bruce Willis. Guess she's into action movies and not that chick flick crap. Thank god.

Her favorite artists, as in singers and bands, were Linkin Park, Paramore, Three Days Grace, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga. I didn't particularly care for Lady Gaga, but the others were decent.

Around 4, two other girls joined us. Ella was very polite and nice and was just as cool as her older sister. She was a lot more shy and really quiet, but a great person all the same. If she and Iggy started going out, she could really change his perspective on girls.

Nudge was, well, chatty. As soon as she saw Max standing next to me, Introducing me to Ella, she started squealing.

"OMG! Max you and Fang look so cute together. It's like you were made to be together. I mean you're both pretty tall, but he's just a tinsy bit taller than you but the guy should always be either taller than you or the same height as you because that would be pretty awkward if you were taller than the guy you were dating. But anyways you look adorable together because you harmonize with each other because you have dirty blonde hair and chocolate colored eyes and he has black hair and dark brown eyes and you're both tall and slim but still well muscled. OMG I hope I find the perfect match for me because I don't want to be with some guy that doesn't look good for me and love me for who I am. I don't want to be ALONE!"

She seemed traumatized by the idea that she could end up alone for her whole life, while the rest of us were just standing there with our heads spinning.

Gazzy, Iggy, and I were standing there with our mouths wide open, staring at her in shock. How the hell can someone talk so much! Max looked over at us and smirked. Well it's not our fault we were standing there looking like idiots while she was perfectly fine. She's probably used to it!

As soon as her eyes met mine I remembered what Nudge had said. Apparently so did she because we both started blushing at the same time.

After that we walked around the stores for a little while longer, then the girls had to go. We said goodbye to each other, and as a special treat I hugged all of them. Angel because she's just like my little sister. Nudge and Ella because they're both really nice girls even though Nudge really liked to talk.

And Max because, well, I just wanted to give Max another hug. As I hugged her, she laughed softly in my ear. The sound sounded like bells chiming beautifully. Ugh, what has become of my mind! I sound like such a wuss!

"What?" I asked her softly. "I thought you weren't a big hugger." she said, laughing some more at me. "I'm not. Today was just a special day." I told her honestly.

"Oh? And why is that, Mr. No Hugs?" she asked me. At first I was in capable of speech. I was feeling the shock of having her cheek resting on mine. When I had hugged her before, sure we had touched, but it hadn't been skin on skin contact. this was a totally new experience for me.

"Oh! Um, let's see. I made three new friends. I made a new best friend. And I was reminded of my past." "Oh. So who's your new best friend?" she asked me trying to sound like she didn't really care.

"You really don't know?" I asked her chuckling. "Well it's not my fault. You're really good at hiding your emotions." she started pouting again.

"Alright I'll tell you. Max, my new best friend is..... you." She pulled back and looked at me, shocked. "Really? But you just met me yesterday!" I shrugged. "So? Just because I met you yesterday doesn't mean that I'm not really fast at making new friends."

"Hm, I guess that that makes some sense. I made a new best friend too you know." she said to me. "Really who is it?" I bet you guys are thinking the opposite of what I'm thinking, but I really didn't know who she was talking about. I guess that that must have been apparent because she said, "You really don't know? It's you, Fang! Who else would it be?" she asked me exasperatedly, as if she was talking to a three year old.

"Okay well I gotta go! I'll.... wait! I can't call you later! I don't have your phone number!" Max started shouting frantically. I started laughing. Man she was such a spaz! I guess I must've said that out loud because the next thing I knew I got punched in the shoulder. Hard. While I moaned in pain she started yelling at me. "I am not a SPAZ!" "Chill, Max! I was just joking." "Sure you were." she huffed.

"Here I'll give you my number! Just calm down okay?" "Fine." I took the pen offered to me from Angel and took Max's hand, scribbling my cell phone number and my house number on to her palm.

"Okay! I'll call later got it?" "Sure, sure." "Kay, bye Fang, bye Gazzy, bye Iggy!" "See ya" I shouted after them.

"Nice hug then, huh?" Iggy asked me, yet again wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. I blushed and he started laughing while running away from me. Smart boy. I chased after him, but in my head I was thinking, ' It sure as hell was a nice hug.'

**-0000-0000-**

**Okay, well I hoped that you liked that chapter. Chapter $ will be up much sooner and I will be deleting the authors note (if I can figure out how to do that.) Oh, I almost forgot! I'm putting up a poll to see which character you guys think I should kidnap! Okay see ya later!**

**Peace out Suckers!!!**

**-MFAFL123-(MajorFaxandFangLover123)-**


	4. The Mall v25

**Hey! I'm back super early with the next chapter and I am pretty darn proud of myself. Anyways, I think I mentioned this before but most of the chapters will be both Fang and Max's POV and then sometimes if I can't fit in 2 POVs then the one I have done will be put up first and the3 other person's POV will be put up later. And I know that the last chapter was a little weird at the end when Max and Fang were telling each other who their best friends were but I'll try to keep from putting that sort of stuff from chapters 5 and onwards. So anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: James Patterson owns all except plot. Bye!**

**-0000-0000-**

**Max POV**

After checking my watch I looked around. Man the mall sure does get crowded fast. "Hey look! There's Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy!" Angel shouted. I looked over to where she was pointing and felt my stomach churn sickeningly at the sight I saw.

Fang was standing there talking to a couple of sluts. Wait a minute. I squinted my eyes and looked at the two girls closely. Yup I was right.

That was Brigid and Lisa. I should've known that they would have moved up here. They went to the same college as me and they both loved Fang.

Lisa was a red head and Brigid had originally been a blonde but then she dyed her hair red to match Lisa's. I've always hated red heads.

Anyways I call Lisa the Red Haired Wonder and Brigid Frigid Brigid because even though she acts all nice and goody-goody, she's really just a first class bitch **(AN: Max curses a lot more than Fang does even though Fang is the guy. No offense to any guys reading this.)**

After a couple of moments the RHW and Frigid Brigid walked away, looking as though they'd won a million dollar lottery. Ha they probably thought that Fang liked them! But if I remembered correctly Fang used to hate sluts. They've got no chance.

Then, Angel said to me, "I'm gonna go say hi. You wanna come?" "Yeah, sure-" I got no further, because Angel took off running towards the guys.

I sighed, and started walking off after her. Wow, I can't believe that she just ran off like that. Then again it is Angel.

As I walked closer I saw angel pretty much tackle Fang as she hugged him. His arms wrapped around her and I knew that they had a very close bond by the way he looked down at her. It was kind of like the way I look at Ella when she isn't annoying the crap out of me.

Angel said something to them, and Fang's head snapped up. His eyes searched through the crowds and finally came to rest on me.

I smiled sheepishly and waved my hand a bit. He smiled and I felt lightheaded all of a sudden. Not to mention that my stomach was doing back flips at the sight of him. What that boy could do to me.

As I walked over, Angel twisted out of Fang's grip and came to stand by me. Then she looked between the both of us and asked, "Well? Aren't you two going to say hello to each other?"

fang seemed to snap out of something when she said that. "Hey Max." "Hey Fang how's it going?" I asked him. "Good." he replied. Just then I could see Iggy jab Fang in the stomach with his elbow. Fang winced. "Max, these are my best friends Iggy and Gazzy. But I'm sure you already know Gazzy."

I nodded. "Yup. Hey Gazzy, nice to meet you Iggy." I looked him up and down checking him over, seeing if he was good for my sister. Sure he's a basketball player, but you can never be too sure these days.

"So, you're the one who likes my little sis, huh. I guess you're okay." Everyone started Angel and Gazzy started laughing at that and I realized that Fang was silent. My gaze flickered over to him and I saw that he had a thoughtful look on his face.

Then he seemed to realize that everyone was laughing at Iggy and he looked up. He smiled slightly and then his brow furrowed **(AN: haha. that's a funny word. Furrowed. Ha.) **as if he just realized something else.

"Maax." Fang whined. Okay now that's just kind of odd. What kind of 23 year old whines? I mean really. I looked at him amused. His eyes seemed to get a bit wider and his mouth turned into a relaxed sort half-smile.

"Yes, Fang?" I asked him laughing slightly. "It's my job to embarrass Iggy." he told me. "Well then, I suppose we'll just have to share that job now won't we?" I asked him. "I guess so. But it's my turn next time." he said keeping up the whining facade. So odd. He walked over to me as he spoke, and hooked his arm through mine.

I blushed at the contact and he looked down at me, confused. He finally understood why I had started to blush and then he started blushing too! Iggy looked at us and then pointed an accusing finger at Fang. "Ha! Look at that! He embarrassed Max and himself at the same time!"

"What I'm not allowed to touch my new friend's arm?" Fang shot right back at him. I gasped aloud and Fang looked down yet again, with that same cute confused look on his face..... Wait a minute! Did I just say CUTE?!?! I'm a not thinking about Fang that way I swear! Now, time to exit my mental scolding.

"What?" he asked me. "Well it's just that you're the best player in the NBA and I'm just some random girl you, er, ran into yesterday and now you want to be friends with me of all people. I just find that hard to take in." That was somewhat truthful.

What I really meant was that I couldn't believe was that some as high classed as him would want to hang out with some like with me. But I would never say that out loud.

"Oh, so you're saying that just because I'm some big sports star, I can't have a normal life? Huh." he huffed and looked as though he were offended. I hastened to make my amends. "No that's not what I meant at all. It's just I never thought that I'd become friends with my favorite basketball player."

He got a thoughtful yet smug look on his face and I mentally sighed and thought about how cute he looked. OH MY GOD!! Why do I keep thinking about him like that?!? I just frickin' met him in person yesterday! I mean come on! I swear, there's something wrong with me.

"So, Max, why am I your favorite basketball player?" _Shit!_ I swore mentally. I looked at Fang, watching as an innocent look came over his usually impassive features. He probably thinks that I like him for his body like most girls! What a sexist jerk!

"You're my favorite player because you're a great basketball player, you're nice to all of your fans, apparently you're an awesome friend to those whom you are friends with, and, um, well, you see..." Oh crap I was stammering! The truth's about to come out!! I stopped and felt my face heat up.

I mumbled something that the others couldn't understand and Fang cupped a hand around his ear and said, "What did you say? I didn't quite catch that."

I mumbled again, a little bit louder and Fang asked me yet again, "Could you repeat that again, but a little bit louder?" I felt my temper flare. He knew what I was going to say, he just wanted to embarrass me!!!!! He's so gonna get it!

"Fine! I like you because you have great body! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!" I yelled at him, giving him my famous death glare. Out of the corner of my eye I saw people turn to stare at me and Gazzy, Iggy, and Angel flinch at my glare.

However, Fang just stood there smiling smugly. "Why, yes Max, yes I am," he said to me. Then he thought about something for a couple of seconds and his face fell. Right then I just wanted to hug him so badly and tell him that everything was okay. Man, I'm turning into such a sap!

"Wait, does that mean you don't like me for all of that other stuff?" he asked me in a small voice sounding so sad that I almost ran up to him and wrapped him up in my arms.

"Of course I like you for all of that other stuff, Fang! I mean I am NOT one of those girls who like a guy just for a the way they look. I'm not shallow!" I really hoped that he didn't think that I was shallow.

His eyes lit up and I smiled. I sighed. He's happy again. Mission accomplished. Just then he looked around threateningly at the others as if warning them that something bad would come to them if they did something wrong. "Okay, I swear, if you make fun of me for doing what I'm about to do, I will kill you all in your sleep."

Jeesh, that's kind of harsh. I didn't get to think any farther because, right then and there, in front of a whole bunch of people, he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly. I tensed up at first, but then melted into his warm embrace.

In Fang's arms I felt totally safe and all of my worries disappeared. What this boy could make me feel. His head was resting on my shoulder, and my head was sitting on his. I breathed in his smell and almost fainted out of pleasure. He smelled like the woods that used to be outside of my old house back in Doylestown. I felt totally happy at that moment.

"Thank you," he whispered to me, tickling my ear. "You have no idea of how many girls I knew only liked me because they liked my body and because they thought I'd be good in the bed." he shivered as if remembering something scary and I tightened my grip around his waist.

"You're welcome," I whispered back to him realizing that he probably didn't want the others to know about what we were talking about. "Hey Fang," I whispered to him, suddenly wondering about something. "Yeah?" he asked me. "I never knew you were such a big hugger." I told him, honestly surprised. He just never seemed like the kind of person who liked to hug.

He chuckled softly and then said to me, "I'm not. This was special. The only person who can get hugs from me is Angel. And even then it's not that often." I turned to look at him and pouted. He laughed at me and I pouted even more. "So if I want a hug I have to either be Angel, or beg for it?" I saw his eyes flickering up and down from my eyes to my lips.

"Yup." he said answering my question, and finally tearing his gaze away from my lips to look into my eyes. I say something flicker in his eyes. Was it.... was it, lust, or something more? Not only that but he seemed to be trying to control himself. Kinda weird.

He squeezed me around the waist one more time and turned to face the others. I smirked lightly to myself as I saw Iggy and Gazzy's faces. They obviously weren't used to Fang hugging people he'd just met. But then again we hadn't just met. But we'll get into that later.

I saw Fang's eyes flicker over the other three before coming to rest on Angel. Angel smirked and walked over to me. She stood on her tip-toes and whispered in my ear, cupping one hand around her mouth so that the guys couldn't see what she was about to say.

"Do like Fang?" I looked at her questioningly. She rolled her eyes and whispered to me again. "I mean, do you _like like _him, as in more than friends." I shook my head furiously and gave her a look that said 'Well-talk-about-this-later.-Not-in-front-of-the-guys.', while blushing 100 different shades of red.

Iggy decided to speak right then. "Hey Max? I know that this is a little awkward, but how would you like to go on a date with Fangy boy over here?" Fang blushed and glared at Iggy as I just blushed. Jeez, was everyone trying to hook us up today?

"Igs, I said no. What part of that did you not understand?" Fang said harshly, a light shade of pink tinting his cheeks and lightly covering the bridge of his nose. He looked really cute. NO! BAD MAX! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO THINK THAT!

"Plus Iggy, considering that he is now one of my new friends I think that that would be a little awkward. I mean it's not like I wouldn't want to go on a date with Fang, but come on, I don't want to ruin our friendship." I said to him. Fang stiffened up a bit, but then snapped out of it as Angel spoke.

"Hey you guys wanna hang out with us today. Nudge and Ella will be here later." Fang looked happy to comply as did Iggy and the Gazzy. Not to mention that Angel used the Bambi eyes on them.

As we hunted for all of the stuff that we needed, Fang started to talk with me, the others a couple of yards ahead of us. "So, Max, have you lived up here in Philly for your whole life?" he asked me. "No. I used to live back up in Doylestown." I told him hoping with all of my heart that he'd remember me.

"Really me too. 'Course then I had to move down here after 10th cause of my dad's new job. What schools did you go to?" He didn't remember me. Yet. "Um, Coldspring for elementary school, Holicong for middle school, and East for high school." I told him having to put some thought to it. "Same!" he looked shocked.

Then after a couple of moments his eyes started to get a faraway look in them as he remembered something. I started to think about the past as well.

_-Flashback-_

_I was in 3rd grade and it was recess time. I was swinging on the swing with one of my best friends, Fang. After a while we stopped so that we were just barely moving, swaying back and forth a bit._

_"Fang?" I asked him, grabbing one of his hands in one of my small ones. "Yeah Maxy?" Fang was the only one who could get away with calling me Maxy. "You'll always be my friend won't you?" "Of course! Why wouldn't I?" he asked me his eyes wide._

_"I don't know. I just wanted to make sure." I said feeling silly for asking him in the first place. "Oh, okay. Don't worry Maxy. I'll always be there for you!" He told me smiling proudly, showing his teeth and the hole in between two of them where he had just recently lost a tooth._

_"Thank you Fangy!" I said throwing my arms around him and pecking him on the lips. 'Uh-oh.' I thought as his eyes widened and his mouth hung open as he blushed. 'Now he's gonna know that I like him!' I thought. I unwrapped my arms from his neck and blushed then said sorry. _

_"How's about we just pretends that that never happened?" I asked him. He nodded, his eyes still wide. After that, we ran around playing tag as if the whole scene had never happened._

_-End Flashback-_

And that's when I got my first kiss. Of course, Fang probably doesn't remember. He was my first crush and my first kiss. But no one but me knows that anymore.

Just then Fang turned to look at me, and his eyes held a new recognition in them. 'I know you' they seemed to say. 'I remember you'.

"So, what happened after I moved down here?" he asked me. "Well, where shall I start? Oh, I know! After you left the team lost almost every game and everyone was pretty mad at your dad for taking that job. I guess that since everyone depended on you so much, and that no one expected for you to leave, no one really bothered to properly learn how to play the game. They were all too lazy." I frowned at the last bit while he chuckled.

"What happened in your life?" he prompted me, not even bothering to defend his former teammates, knowing that what I said about them was true.

"Um, I got onto the soccer team and was the best player on the team and me and Sam started to get more serious. But then I dumped him because he only went out with me because he wanted to have sex with me. When I told him no, he backed off, but then I found out that he had been cheating on me for three months with your ex-girlfriend, who had been cheating on you when you two were going out for a month." I turned to look at Fang and saw that he was pretty much shaking in anger.

I guessed that he was mad about his girlfriend cheating on him, so I wrapped an arm around him and gave hi8m a quick side hug sorta thingy. Something along those lines.

"I'm sorry about what she did to you. But don't worry. She was just a lying cheating asshole of a slut." Fang looked at me and gave me a lopsided grin that made my heart melt. I smiled brightly at him while screaming at myself internally for thinking like that.

"Oh I'm not upset about Tess. I'm just mad because I knew Sam and I should have told you how big of a player he was. After all, he was my best friend from grades 2 till 6th grade he cheated on 8 girls all at the same time and none of them found out until the end of the year when they all found out he'd just been using them all to get his real goal. So, I guess it's kinda my fault." He frowned at this while I started blushing and staring at him surprised.

He shifted underneath my gaze, looking uncomfortable. "What?" he finally, not being able to take it anymore. "Well, first of all I never knew that you could speak so much at one time. Second of all, I didn't know you cared so much about how my ex-boyfriend treated me," I looked at him and my look softened. "Thirdly thank you for saying what you did. It made me feel better. Honestly."

And I did feel better. I wasn't lying. Fang blushed and looked embarrassed. Then we arrived at Sports Authority and Iggy got some pretty cool shoes. After that Angel dragged us off to some of her stores.

Fang and I chatted some more and I found out that his favorite colors were black (shocker! Not.), silver, and white. He liked to read books by James Patterson just like I did and was impatiently awaiting the arrival of the second book in December, and he loved basketball, soccer, and lacrosse.

His favorite actors were Leonardo DeCaprio and Vi Diesel. He loved action movies and comedies and his favorite movie was Death at a Funeral which had just come out recently. His favorite bands were Guns n' Roses, Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Rise Against, and Metallica. We had pretty much the exact same personalities. Except, you know he usually a lot more quiet.

Around 4, Nudge and Ella arrived and joined us. I could tell immediately that Iggy actually really liked Ella and that Gazzy and Nudge were already crushing on each other. And how could I tell, you ask? Well, duh, female intuition.

I was standing next to Fang, introducing him to Ella, when Nudge exploded. Well, not literally, but she just started rambling. Oh dear lord, I hope that everyone brought an extra pair of ear plugs.

"OMG! Max you and Fang look so cute together. It's like you were made to be together. I mean you're both pretty tall, but he's just a tinsy bit taller than you but the guy should always be either taller than you or the same height as you because that would be pretty awkward if you were taller than the guy you were dating. But anyways you look adorable together because you harmonize with each other because you have dirty blonde hair and chocolate colored eyes and he has black hair and dark brown eyes and you're both tall and slim but still well muscled. OMG I hope I find the perfect match for me because I don't want to be with some guy that doesn't look good for me and love me for who I am. I don't want to be ALONE!"

The boys had their mouths hanging open in shock while Angel rubbed her temples and Ella scolded Nudge for damaging the boys hearing forever. I just smirked at them. As soon as I looked at Fang, though, I remembered what Nudge had said and started blushing at the same time he did. He must have thought of it too.

We walked around the mall some more and Ella and Nudge bought the stuff that they needed. After a while the guys said that they had to leave.

The guys hugged all of us girls. Even Fang! I guess he must've liked Ella and Nudge as friends if he wanted to hug them good-bye. And, score, I got 2 hugs today! Not to mention that those same 2 hugs were given to me by the best player in the entire NBA.

When he hugged me again I laughed a little and I could feel him loosen up a bit. "What?" he breathed. "I thought you weren't a big hugger." I said while still chuckling. "I'm not. Today was just a special day." he told me honestly.

"Oh? And why is that, Mr. No Hugs?" I asked teasingly. He didn't respond for a couple of minutes as if he wasn't paying attention. "Oh! Um, let's see. I made three new friends. I made a new best friend. And I was reminded of my past." he said after a couple more seconds, as if just remembering that he had been speaking to me.

"Oh. So who's your new best friend?" I asked nonchalantly as I could though on the inside I was bubbling with nervousness and anxiety. What if he didn't like me that much as a friend. "You really don't know?" he asked me laughing lightly. I pouted. "Well it's not my fault. You're really good at hiding your emotions."

"Alright I'll tell you. Max, my new best friend is..... you." Whoa! It was me! Yes! "Really? But you just met me yesterday!" What?! No! Shut up Max, SHUT UP! Fang just shrugged at my question though. "So? Just because I met you yesterday doesn't mean that I'm not really fast at making new friends."

"Hm, I guess that that makes some sense. I made a new best friend too you know." Hoping that he got what I meant. Apparently he didn't because his face showed true curiosity on it. Man, sometimes he can be so slow! "Really who is it?" Yep. I was right. He honestly had no clue. sigh So slow......

"You really don't know? It's you, Fang! Who else would it be?" I asked him exasperatedly. Jeez, I feel like I'm talking to a flippin' 3 year old!

"Okay well I gotta go! I'll.... wait! I can't call you later! I don't have your phone number!" I started shouting worriedly. I needed his number! I have to be able to talk to him whenever I needed to!!

He started laughing at me and saying things under his breath and I caught some of what he was saying and immediately felt the need to hit him. And what might Fang have been saying that made me want to hit him? Well, I'll tell you. "Man! She's such a spaz!" is what he said. And I am no spaz. Do I seem like a spaz to you? You know what, never mind, don't answer that question.

I punched him the shoulder as hard as I could and he started moaning in pain while I yelled at him. "I am not a SPAZ!" I all but screamed at him. "Chill, Max! I was just joking." he pleaded with me trying to keep from getting punched again. "Sure you were." I huffed at him.

"Here I'll give you my number! Just calm down okay?" he told me. "Fine." I said. He took the pen Angel had offered him and wrote down two numbers on my hand. "Okay! I'll call later got it?" "Sure, sure." he told me. "Kay, bye Fang, bye Gazzy, bye Iggy!" "See ya!" he shouted after us. As we walked to the car, Angel dropped back beside me. "So do you like him?" she asked me her blue eyes gleaming eagerly.

"Yeah, he's one of my best-friends." I told her. "Max stop trying to avoid the subject! Do you _like like_ him?" I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I.... I...I guess I do just a little bit, but-" "Ah ha! So you do like him! I can't wait to get you two together. And I guess that it helps that you already know him. Wait! I need to know how many boys you've kissed!" she exclaimed interrupting me.

"Oh, um, I think about 3." "Who were they?" she asked me impatiently as I blushed. "Sam Goodman, Tom Evermont, and, um....." "Well! who was the last person?!?" She practically screeched at me as we got closer to the car. Ella and Nudge gave us weird looks and I smiled sheepishly at them. Come on Max, you've gotta tell me who the last person was." Angel pleaded with me. I sighed in defeat and told her. "Fine, my very first kiss was...was.... was Fang! Okay there fine I said it! My first kiss was Fang! Are you happy now!" Her mouth was hanging open in shock.

"When did you kiss Fang?!?!?" she asked me. "When we were in third grade and I had a major crush on him and he was one of my very best-friends." I told her. "Angel can we talk about this later." I asked her as we got to the car. I unlocked it and slid into the driver's seat while Nudge and Ella got into Nudge's car right next to us.

"Why?" Angel asked me. " I need to go get a new alarm clock and I've decided that I want an IPod dock so we're gonna have to go to the apple store, 'kay?" "Fine." she said looking impatient. "But I want all of the deets about your school years later, okay?" she told me. "Okay." I sighed so _not _looking forward to that conversation. And with that we sped off towards the Apple store.

**-0000-0000-**

**Okay, so there's the chapter and now I have to tell you all something. I messed up on the poll for which character I should kidnap but it's up on my profile now so don't be afraid to vote. Also, I'm gonna need more reviews guys. I mean seriously, I only got 4 for the last chapter! This time I hope that I get at least 25. And just for those of you that are new to fanfiction, first of all, welcome, second of all, even if you don't have an account you can still review by coming up with a fake username and being anonymous (yeah I spelled that right on my first try!). That's how I started out so don't be shy! I accept all blind reviews so, yeah. That's pretty much it. BTW, I read FANG: A Maximum Ride Novel and I for one hated it. One of my best friends liked it, but I think that that's only because Dylan's in it, but you never know. Eh, who cares, it's her opinion and everyone has the right to have their own opinion. Okay so review and don't forget to check out the poll!**

**MajorFaxandFangLover123 Out! Peace!**

**- MFAFL123-(MajorFaxandFangLover123)-**


	5. Pool Party!

**Hey people of fanfiction! I'm back! I know it took a while but here's chapter 4! Yeah, yeah, I know summer is supposed to be the time of more updates, but I've been really busy as of late. I had to write the chapters for this story and my other story, Young Love, and I've been getting tons of ideas for fanfics so I've been typing them up waiting to post them. **

**But I worked extra hard on this chapter so I hope that you guys like it! It's 16 pages long on Microsoft Word and it has 8,364 words. So you guys better appreciate it. Oh by the way, I'm really in love with Logan Lerman. That kid is a total hottie! I think that he would be the perfect Fang! I've seen him with black hair in the movie 3:10 to Yuma and he had black hair and he really worked the look.**

**Fang: "Yeah right! No one can be a perfect me besides me!"**

**Me: "Shut it, Mr. Emo Bird Boy!**

**Iggy: "Yeah, shut it!"**

**ME: "Oh yeah! –gives blind bird boy high five- How do give people high fives if you're blind?" **

**Iggy: "I have skill! That's how!" **

**Me: -shrugs- "Whatever. I brought Iggy in because I thought Fang was lonely."**

**Anyways, here's chapter 4!**

**Fang: "Disclaimer!" **

**Me: "Oh right! I'm always for getting that thing!" **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or 'Breaking the Habit' by Linkin Park. All rights go to James Patterson and whoever owns the Linkin Park song. **

**Fang POV**

As I walked into my house, I thought about a lot of things. One, Iggy was gonna have such a bad headache tomorrow. As soon as I had caught him I had smacked upside the head 3 times in a row. Secondly, what am I gonna do tomorrow?

I slipped my shoes off in the doorway and walked into the kitchen. As I rifled through the fridge, I thought hard. I knew that it definitely had to include the girls. A pool party? That was perfect! Plus, I would probably get to see Max in a- Stop! Bad Fang, bad!

I shook my head as I withdrew it from the fridge to clear it of any thoughts that had just been in my head. Great, now I sound like Iggy! Haven't I seen her half-naked enough? I grimaced and blushed as I thought about what had happened just couple of days ago.

The image of Max standing in the alleyway in nothing but jeans and a blue bra was forever burned into my brain. I sighed and looked at what I had pulled out of the fridge.

The ingredients to make burritos. Now I know what you all are thinking. 'But Fang can't cook! He'll probably burn down the kitchen!' Well, you're wrong! I can cook! Iggy just doesn't trust me to make myself breakfast. I am perfectly capable of cooking.

Twenty minutes later, I was seated at the table with perfectly good burrito sitting in front of me. I dug in and, I have to say, it tasted pretty good. After I was done I went around the kitchen and listed what I would need for the party tomorrow. Once I was done with the list I looked at the clock.

7:07. Perfect. It's not too late to call around for the party. I picked up the phone and dialed Iggy's number.

**-0000-0000-**

I stopped pacing and fell backwards onto the couch, feeling tired. I had called everyone. Max, Iggy, Nudge, Ella, Gazzy, and Angel. Everybody was coming. I rubbed my eyes with my fists and looked at the clock again. 9:35.

I blinked in surprise and looked more closely to make sure that what the clock said was right. Yup.

The clock was definitely right. I rubbed my eyes once more and pushed myself upright. I got up off of the couch and staggered a bit, but then regained my balance. I walked up the stairs and made it to my bed room. I then walked over to the bathroom and stripped down and stepped into the shower.

**-0000-0000-**

I walked into back into my room with the towel wrapped securely around my waist. I pulled on some boxers. Then I pulled on some pajama bottoms and used my towel to dry my hair. The rough fabric soaked up the moisture quickly, and after a couple of minutes, I fell back onto my bed and passed out immediately from exhaustion.

**-0000-0000-**

I woke with a start. I looked around myself to make sure that everything was still the same. Everything looked fine. It didn't seem like some kid I hated from my 9th grade year had snuck back into my life and turned all of my friends against me. I shook my head. It was very unlikely that Sam Goodman would get up and walk straight back into my life. I mean how could I have been thinking so unrealistically?

I shook my head and pulled off the covers, then stood and stretched, popping my shoulders yet again. I rubbed my neck and walked over to my dresser and pulled out a plain white t-shirt. I looked over at my IHome and shook my hair. 10:47. Plenty of time to run to the store and make it back on time.

I walked out of my room and made my way over to the stairs. Just as I started walking down them, I heard the phone ringing. I ran down the rest of the stairs and into the kitchen and snatched the phone from the counter.

"Hello?" I said into the phone. "Hi Fang! It's Max. I was wondering if you wanted Ella and me to come over early to help out for the party." I scrunched my eyebrows together and thought about it for a moment. Well, I could use the help. "Sure. You guys can help. Can you come over by 2:30?" I asked her. "Okay, yeah! Ella and I will be there by 2:30. See ya later." "Bye." I said.

After the line went dead I put the phone down and went over to the fridge. I picked the list up and looked it over. I had a couple of things that I had to get from the grocery store. It wasn't much. I put the list down on the counter and ran back upstairs to grab some socks then came back down and put my shoes on.

I grabbed my keys and the list and walked out the door and to my car. As soon as I had turned the car on I pushed on the button and the radio turned on. I hit number 3 and the song 'Breaking the Habit' by Linkin Park came on.

_Memories consume  
Like opening the wound  
I'm picking me apart again  
You all assume  
I'm safe here in my room  
Unless I try to start again_

I shivered as I listened to the lyrics. Whoever had to go through that must have had a hell of a life.__

_[Bridge:]__  
I don't want to be the one  
The battles always choose  
'Cause inside I realize  
That I'm the one confused_

_[Chorus:]__  
I don't know what's worth fighting for  
Or why I have to scream  
I don't know why I instigate  
And say what I don't mean  
I don't know how I got this way  
I know it's not alright  
So I'm breaking the habit  
I'm breaking the habit  
Tonight_

I started to sing along with the song, trying to make my voice match the pitch of the guy singing the song. I don't think that anyone but Iggy and Gazzy knew that when I was in 11th and 12th grade I had been in a band. I had been the lead singer and guitarist. We were pretty good.__

Clutching my cure  
I tightly lock the door  
I try to catch my breath again  
I hurt much more  
Than anytime before  
I had no options left again

_[Bridge:]__  
I don't want to be the one  
The battles always choose  
'Cause inside I realize  
That I'm the one confused_

_[Chorus:]__  
I don't know what's worth fighting for  
Or why I have to scream  
I don't know why I instigate  
And say what I don't mean  
I don't know how I got this way  
I'll never be alright  
So, I'm breaking the habit  
I'm breaking the habit  
Tonight_

_[Bridge:]__  
I'll paint it on the walls  
'Cause I'm the one at fault  
I'll never fight again  
And this is how it ends_

_[Chorus:]__  
I don't know what's worth fighting for  
Or why I have to scream  
But now I have some clarity  
to show you what I mean  
I don't know how I got this way  
I'll never be alright  
So, I'm breaking the habit  
I'm breaking the habit  
I'm breaking the habit  
Tonight_

When the song ended I pulled into the Genuardis parking lot and parked my car. I turned it off and got out. I started walking towards the grocery store and locked my car over my shoulder without turning around. Yeah, I'm just that good.

**-0000-0000-**

By the end of the grocery trip, I had 2 bags of Doritos and 2 bags of Lays, 2 boxes full of Coca-Cola and Sprite each, some nachos and salsa, carrots and ranch dressing, 2 massive bowls of fruit, and, to top it all off, hotdogs and chocolate ice-cream.

After I paid, I checked my bill to see what the total was. Only $50.00? Man, either everything I bought was really cheap or there was a great sale going on.

I walked over to my car, put all of the bags in the back, and put the cart away. When I got into the car, I checked the time. Shit! It was already 2! I sped home and managed not to crash into anyone. Like I said before, I'm just that good.

By the time I got home, it was 2:17. I took all of the bags inside and left them in the kitchen. I kicked off my shoes and ran upstairs. I searched through my drawers and pulled out my black swim trunks. I changed into them and left the black t-shirt on.

I went back downstairs and checked the clock. 2:27. Ok. I had 3 minutes before Ma and Ella arrived. I went out back and checked how warm the water was. Not too cold but not too warm. Perfect temperature.

Walking back inside, I took out some bowls to put all of the snacks in and grabbed the big cooler, planning on filling it with ice later on, before everyone else got here. Just then the doorbell rang. I walked down the hallway and pulled the door open.

Max and Ella stood there, both wearing oversized t-shirts, meaning that they both already had their swimsuits on. "Hey guys." " Hi Fang." Max said to me while Ella answered more shyly, "Hi." "Come on in." I told them holding the door open wide. "Thanks." Max said as she passed me. "It's like 80 degrees out there." She told me. "Really?" "Yeah."

When they walked in Max took one look at my walls and smirked. "Nice. Silver walls with black splashes." I grinned, feeling less tense around her. "Yeah, well, you know me. My favorite color is black." "I know. Hey, has anyone ever told you that you that you seem emo-ish?" Max asked me teasingly.

I playfully glared at her. She smirked even more. "It's not nice to call people emo. And yes, Iggy tells me that almost all the time" I said to her as I led them both down the hall towards the kitchen. Ella had been watching us with wide eyes the whole time. When we got in there, I told them to start filling the bigger bowls with chips and the smaller ones with carrots and dressing.

Then, I filled the cooler with ice and started packing the cans of soda in. Max saw this and came over to help. Together, we filled the cooler with the drinks and carried it outside. Ella came out with some of the bowls and max went to help her put them on the table that I had set up.

I walked back inside to grab more bowls and happened to glance at the clock. "Crap!" I exclaimed. Max stuck her head back in to see what was wrong. "What's happenin'?" She asked me her head tilted to the side a bit.

"It's already 3! The others will be here any second now!" "Well, Ella and I will finish setting up the back." As soon as she had gone back outside, the doorbell rang. "Coming!" I shouted. I walked down the hall and went to answer the door.

Right when I opened the door, I got splashed by ice cold water. I yelled out in surprise and was the tackled onto the ground with a hand over my mouth. "Ha ha ha! Oh, I totally got you! Did you see your face? Greatest thing ever!" I ripped the hand off of my mouth and looked up to glare at I ggy….. and Max?

"Max? You helped him?" I yelled at her. "What, he said it was going to be funny!" she told me defending herself. "Does this look funny to you?" I asked her referring to the image of me lying sopping wet on the ground with a laughing Iggy sitting on my stomach. She looked us over and her face scrunched up.

"You know what? Now that I think about it, that just looks disturbing." "I'm glad you agree with me. Now Iggy, will you please get the frick off of me!" "I'd be happy to Fang." Iggy got up and dusted off his shorts, acting like he was special or something.

I got up and looked down at myself. Great. I sighed and pulled my shirt over my head my chest feeling slightly sticky because of the wetness of the shirt. I looked at the wet piece of clothing in my hands and sighed yet again. Looks like I'll have to wash it all over again. I shook my head to get the hair sticking on my face off of my face.

I happened to get a glimpse of myself in the mirror I had put on the wall for Angel (don't ask.) while doing so. My hair was splayed out around my head in an inky halo and I noticed that Max's eyes were huge. And don't worry, I'm not one of those guys who likes to look at himself all of the time. I don't need a mirror to know that I'm good looking.

I turned to face her and smirked. Her eyes were still really big and I noticed that her face had a pinkish tinge to it and that her mouth was slightly opened. I forgot that I was supposed to be yelling at her as soon as I had seen that she had been ogling at my six-pack.

"You might want to close your mouth. You might start catching flies." I said to her then winked. She immediately snapped her mouth shut and glared at me while blushing harder. I just kept on smirking at her.

"Shut up." She mumbled pathetically. "Now I have proof that you love my body." I told her, my voice sounding smug. "Yeah, and I'm an eyewitness!" Iggy piped up. "Yeah, well, no one will believe you if I kill both of you first." She glared at us in a calculating way and I felt myself start sweating.

Then, her face brightened up into an evil smile and Iggy gulped loudly. After seeing her face stay like that for a couple of minutes straight I started to shift uncomfortably. Finally I snapped. "What?" She looked at me and chuckled. "I'm so gonna get you back." Then she turned and waltzed down the hall towards the back. Just then the doorbell rang.

I turned back towards the door and pulled it open. "Hi Fang!" Angel and Nudge shouted at the same time. I blinked. Angel and Nudge were standing in front of me both with huge grins on their faces. Gazzy was standing a little ways off, blushing and shifting from foot to foot.

"Did you all come together?" I asked them. Nudge giggled. "No, I just got here at the same time as them and I thought it would be a good idea if we rang the doorbell together." I shook my head. Man, she talked so fast that sometimes it was hard to even understand her.

"Well, come on in." The two girls squealed as they ran underneath my arm towards the pool, leaving Gazzy, Iggy, and me behind. Iggy had, as I had just noticed stayed beside me while Max had walked off.

Gazzy's blush had begun to fade and now he looked at Iggy and me. "Are you two feeling okay? You look really pale." I looked over at Iggy. "Is it normal for Max to get this really evil look on her face when she's planning to prank you?" I asked Gazzy.

He sighed and shook his head. "Fang, what'd you do?" "I merely brought up the fact that one of the reasons she liked me was because she liked my body and now she wants to kill me!"

"She probably doesn't want to kill you," Gazzy told me while chuckling. "She probably just wants to prank you badly so that you know not to mess with her." Iggy spoke up. "Yeah well you didn't see her man. She looked so creepy." He shivered slightly. "Look can we just go back and relax. Let's just forget about it and worry about it when she actually does it. Okay?" I asked them. They nodded.

As we walked towards the pool Iggy spoke again, breaking the silence. "Listen, I know that we agreed not to talk about it again, but, Fang, what if she does something seriously embarrassing to you?" he asked me. I shook my head. "I don't know. Maybe I'll just have to deal with it. But let's hope that it's not something to bad." By that time we had made it outside to the pool area. The first thing that I noticed was that Nudge was just about to do a cannonball. As she splashed into the pool, the spray of the water soaked Ella, Angel, and Max. Ella and Angel screamed at the sudden shower.

"Nudge!" Angel screamed at her. "Sorry! My bad! I didn't mean to get you guys wet!" she said while floating on her back in the water. I smiled slightly while Gazzy and Iggy chuckled. I walked over to the edge of the pool and looked around, checking out how everything was going. "Well, I might as well get in the pool since I'm already wet." I heard Max say from behind me.

As I turned, she pulled her over-sized t-shirt over her head and left me staring at her as she stood there in nothing but a black bikini with white designs on it. I felt my eyes get wide and my mouth drop open. I probably looked like an idiot but I couldn't help it. Her body was….was….amazing, beautiful, magnificent, whatever words you could think of to describe it. Her body was perfectly curved and way hotter than any super model. I just expected her to pull a rubber band out of her hair and flip like they do in movies.

Right then I knew that this was her way of getting back at me. And it was working too. I wanted her. I needed her. I just wanted to hold onto her and never let go! I suddenly felt an urgent need to kiss her. I inwardly groaned as I realized that she was making me look like an idiot. Why is she capable of doing this to me? It's not fair.

I saw her eyes flicker in surprise but then that flicker was gone. She smiled sweetly at me and walked over, only to stop about 4 inches away from me. I quickly shut my mouth and felt it water in wanting. Ugh. I hate this. Kill me now (I'm being sarcastic. Please don't actually kill me.) She looked up at me through her lashes and softly ran one finger up my arm, causing me to shiver a little bit. "I totally got you back," she whispered to me. Then she paused. "Well, almost." Then she shoved me backwards into the pool.

How the frick can she be so sexy! I resurfaced and gasped for air, hearing laughter in the background and seeing Max take a bow. That's it! She is so gonna get it! I silently got out of the pool and snuck up behind her. The others' eyes got wide and I made the universal 'shhh' sound at them. Max must've noticed their faces because, as soon as I came up behind her she spun around.

I grabbed her, wrapping my arms firmly around her waist. "Fang!" she screamed at me. "Fang put me down! I was just messing around! Put me down!" She started to thrash and punch me in a struggle to break free from my grip as I carried her to the pool. I switched her position so that I was now holding her bridal style.

"Max, you better stop thrashing before I drop you into the pool," I warned her holding her directly above the cold water. She went limp in my arms immediately and sighed in my arms. "Could you put me down now Fang?" I shook my head no. "Fang, I said put me down," she said sharply.

Still I shook my head. "Then what are you planning on-"she broke off and her eyes got wide. "No please don't. Don't you dare Fang!" I just grinned at her one last time then dropped her in the pool. I heard the others burst out laughing and walked back towards them, smiling softly. I so owned her right there. I heard a small splash and turned to see a dripping wet Max resurface, giving me a death glare, and holding a water gun. "This calls for war," she said and then she blasted me full in the face.

For a couple of seconds it was dead silent. Then, I wiped my hand across my face to get some water off, opened my eyes, and grinned wickedly at Max. I saw her eyes go unfocused for a moment and then she snapped back into reality and gulped loudly. Within seconds she was underneath the surface of the water.

I turned to face the others. "So, anyone want to help me get back at her?" I saw 2 hands go up and almost smiled. The guys were in. But what about the girls? I looked at them. "You guys don't want to help me get back at Max?" I asked them.

Ella shook her head and Nudge and Angel actually gasped. "You want us to get back at a fellow girl? No way!" Nudge said to me. "Plus I can't go against my sister. She would kill me!" Ella told me. I sighed. If that was how it was going to be then fine. "Then, I guess it'll just have to be us guys against you girls."

Their eyes got wide and then they all ran to the pool and jumped in. I looked at Gazzy and Iggy. "Let's go," I said and they nodded. This was gonna be one heck of a water fight. We ran around to the other side of the pool and grabbed some water guns then filled them up with water. Then we jumped in and searched for our first victim.

**Max POV**

Resurfaced underneath the bridge that went across the pool, and took a deep breath. Man, for a moment there, my sight had gone kinda funny. As soon as I had seen Fang smile a full smile my world had gotten a little brighter. Even if he was smiling like he was planning my impending doom in an all-out water war.

I peeked out and saw Iggy and Gazzy raise their hands to a question Fang had just asked. _'Probably gathering reinforcements to destroy me' _I thought grimly. Ella, Angel, .and Nudge all shook their heads and looked offended for a moment. Then, I saw Fang say something to them and their eyes widened. Within in seconds they were in the water and I saw their forms rapidly moving towards my hiding spot.

I looked back at the guys and saw them talking for a couple of seconds then they ran over to the side of the pool where all of the water toys were. My own gun was floating in the water beside me and as the ran past the bridge, I grabbed it and pressed myself against the wall. Just then I heard a small splash as Angels head broke through the surface of the water.

"Max! I thought you would be hiding under here!" Just then Ella and Nudge broke through also and began spluttering and gasping, taking in a deep lungful of air. "So, this is gonna be an all-out war, right?" I asked them. They nodded and I smiled. "Well then, what are we waiting for! Ella, Nudge! You guys get Iggy! He's pretty tall but he'll probably be sorta fast, so it'll be best if you double team him!" They nodded and quietly swam off to the weapon- I mean the water guns. Hehe. Sorry, got carried away there.

I turned to look at Angel and said, "Okay Angel, you get Gazzy. He's a pretty big guy but you can handle him. Remember, key strategy to winning the fight is manipulation. Act innocent and sweet; make him think twice about getting you with the water. Then, when he least expects it, blast him. I know you can do it." She smiled angelically at me. "Got it Max! He'll never know what hit him," she said. She swam over to the water stuff and picked up a pretty big lookin' water gun. Damn, that girl could be scary!

I heard soft clapping behind me and stiffened. I turned to see Fang floating there with his water gun by his side. "Wow, you really know how to pull together a fighting force. I'm actually felling pretty scared for the guys. Those girls seem vicious." I tried to look cool and slyly glanced at the water gun that was still floating there. Getting farther and farther away from him each second.

"Yeah, well, can't go down in the beginning now can we? Plus they know what to do." I shrugged, trying to seem casual. He chuckled. "I guess so." He looked around for a second, and I saw my chance. I made a dive for it, but he snatched it up and I flopped back into the water. "Not. A. Chance. Do you honestly think I would just let you take it from me?" he asked me tauntingly. I grinded my teeth together in frustration.

He was right. I couldn't try to be sneaky so I would either have to take it from him by force or I would have to use the method I told Angel to use. Manipulation. I swam a little closer to him until I came to a slightly more shallow area of water under the bridge. I smiled at him and batted my eyelashes at him, trying to act seductive. I saw his eyes go unfocused and then he shook his head. I kept getting closer to him until we were only inches apart.

I ran a hand up his arm and felt him shiver at my touch. My hand stopped at his cheek and I caressed it softly. I put that hand behind his neck then brought my other one up and put it behind there too. He looked at me warily. I pressed closer to him until there was only about an inch left in between us.

I pouted up at him. "You're right," I said to him. "I don't want to play anymore." I closed my eyes and leaned in. Fang closed his eyes as well and I snapped mine open and snatched the water gun away from him. He opened his eyes and groaned at his stupidity.

"Man," I said chuckling. "You guys are all the same. You always fall for that trick." He glared at my remark. I smirked at him and he pounced, grabbing my arms and pinning them to my sides. He dunked my head under the water. When I resurfaced, I was spluttering and spitting water out. When I regained my breath, I smiled weakly.

"Ha, I still have the water gun!" I said triumphantly. And with that I squirted him in the face with the water gun. Again. As soon as the spray of water hit his face I swam away as fast as I could. When I came out from under the bridge (it's _really _wide), I saw that Ella, Nudge, and Angel had backed Gazzy and Iggy up into a corner and were mercilessly spraying them with water. I laughed and swam over to them, watching the guys miserable defeat.

After five minutes Gazzy finally brought his gun up and managed to get Nudge in the mouth. As water filled her mouth she turned and spit it up. But Iggy and Gazzy were quick. Within seconds Ella and Angel had water in their mouths as well. The two of them turned to spit it out and Iggy and Gazzy burst out from the corner and stopped in front of me.

The grinned evilly at each other and then sprayed me full in the face I threw my hands up and squeezed my eyes shut. All of a sudden the attack stopped and I put my arms down and opened my eyes. Iggy and Gazzy were standing in the 5 foot zone next to Fang and they all had their water guns up and aiming at Ella, Nudge, Angel, and me. We brought ours up as well, but before we could anything, Fang shouted out a command. "Fire!" he hollered and their guns sprayed us down. I blinked and shouted out "GO!" and we fired as well. The shots went back and forth and for the next thirty minutes it was a spray gun fight.

**Fang POV**

After our long and intense water gun fight we took a break and sat down on the pool chairs, arguing about who one. "Are you joking me? We totally won! Did you see the last shot Gazzer got in? Totally destroyed," Iggy exclaimed. "Yeah right!" Max snorted. "That was a total cheap shot! He blasted me after we agreed to cut it short and take a break. I kicked your ass with that hit in the mouth and then dunking your head under water! That was a masterpiece." Ella, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, and I watched with wide eyes as Max and Iggy went back and forth.

By the middle I had a headache, the girls were all giggling, and Gazzy had joined in on the fight. I rubbed my temples and squeezed my eyes shut. Finally after another five minutes of their bickering, I'd had enough.

"Will you SHUT UP?" I yelled. They froze in the middle of Max about to punch Iggy. They all looked at me in shock. "Wow," Iggy said normally after a couple of seconds. "He actually yelled." "Yeah," Gazzy said just as surprised. "He never yells at us. Not even when Ig and I set bombs off in his backyard."

I rolled my eyes at their shock and Max stared at them like they were crazy. "You set bombs off in his backyard?" she asked them. They grinned. "Of course we do. But most of the time we do it in our own backyards," they told her. She shook her head. "I always knew that there was something wrong with you two," she said. "Hey!" they yelled indignantly.

I sighed. "Okay, so who wants lunch?" I asked. I got a course of "Me!" with varying levels of excitement. "Alright. Iggy, go make some hotdogs!" He looked at me. "Why do I have to make the hotdogs?" he asked. I shrugged. "Because I'm too lazy. Now go make the hotdogs," I said. "Fine." And with that he went into my house.

Max looked at me. "You let them set off _bombs_ in your backyard?" she asked me. I nodded. "How do you think I got that?" I pointed to a huge hole a couple of yards behind my pool. She looked at it. She shrugged. "I never really noticed it," she told me. I almost smiled. I saw Ella, Nudge, and Angel exchange a glance then nod. What the heck was that about?

"We're gonna go swim till Iggy comes out with the hotdogs," Ella told us. "I think I will too," Gazzy said. I nodded and lay back with my arms behind my head. Max came and sat on the pool chair next to mine and laid down as well, her hands beneath her head.

"So," she started. I looked at her. "Do you usually have pool parties during the summer?" she asked me. I shrugged. "Well what do you do during the off season?" she continued. "Beat Iggy in Halo, play some basketball, beat Iggy in halo a little more, and work out to stay in shape," I told her.

"So I'm guessing that either Iggy's really bad at Halo and you just happen to beat him all the time, or you're really good at it," she said. I pretended to think about it and said, "How about option number two?" and she laughed. A real laugh, not like those little giggles most girls give me.

I smiled a little bit. She was different, but in a good way.

**-0000-0000-**

After we had eaten Iggy's hotdogs (Like pig heaven. He can cook), we waited a little while then went back into the water. Nudge immediately piped up. "Oh, oh, oh! Can we play chicken? I absolutely love that game! It's so much fun. Except that I heard that one time someone died when they were playing chicken. Wow, that must be pretty scary, playing a game and then having one of your friends die. I would hate it if that happened. I would also hate it if someone made it rule that you couldn't-" Max slapped a hand over mouth.

"Nudge, cool it! We can play chicken okay?" she said. Nudge nodded and Max slowly took her hand off of her mouth and Nudge smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." "That's okay," Max said. "Now what're the teams?" she asked. We looked around. "Well, there are 4 girls and 3 boys so somebody is gonna have to sit out," Ella said.

Gazzy shrugged. "That's okay. I can hold up Nudge and Angel," he offered. "But what are the other two?" he asked. Max looked around. "Um, I'll go with Fang and Ella can go with Iggy." Iggy and I shrugged. Then he looked at me in horror. "Oh no!" he exclaimed. I looked at him as if to say, 'What?'

"I'm turning into a Fang!" he exclaimed. The others laughed while I just rolled my eyes. Seems like I've been having to do that a lot today. We all swam to the 6 feet deep end since Iggy, Gazzy, and I were pretty tall. Max got up on my shoulders while Ella got onto Iggy's Gazzy, Angel and Nudge were floating near the edge of the pool, treading water as they waited for their turns. Iggy and I looked at each other and blushed while we held onto Max and Ella's bare knees. Talk about awkward.

I looked up slightly and saw Max grinning challengingly at Ella as they prepared to dump one another into the water. I heard Gazzy say, "I have 5 bucks on Max," right before they grabbed each other's shoulders and began wrestling.

**-0000-0000-**

It had been twenty minutes since we had started and we had decided to switch it up. Now it was Max on Iggy's shoulders and Nudge on mine. We had found out that all of the girls were pretty strong so each match took at least 6 or 7 minutes.

"Go!" Ella shouted, and Max and Nudge grabbed each other started pushing and shoving each other. Max and Nudge were the most evenly matched in this game. They were both pretty tough but Max had a lot more experience in this sort of stuff and was slowly making Nudge lose her balance. Just as Max was shoving her off, Angel shouted out, "Fang, watch out!" I slipped and hit my head on the back of the diving board. Right before I blacked out I heard screaming. Then my vision went blurry and I passed out.

**Max's POV**

Om my god, oh my god, oh my god! What just happened? I heard Ella, Nudge and Angel scream as I stared in horror as Fang's head slipped underneath the water. I hadn't even noticed but we had managed to move all the way to the 10 feet deep area while Nudge and I wrestled. I have no idea how Iggy and Fang managed to keep us up while swimming.

Finally, after about 10 seconds, my senses came back to me and I snapped back into reality. "Guys! I'm gonna try to get him! Iggy can you help me?" I asked him desperately. He nodded numbly and we swam down.

At the bottom of the pool, Fang was lying on his back, his eyes shut, bubbles of air escaping from his mouth. I noticed as we swam a little closer, that there was a red tinge to the water near his head. He must've started bleeding when he hit his head against the diving board! As we swam down, my eyes started burning and blinked rapidly a couple of times. Stupid chlorine!

Within seconds, we reached Fang. Iggy and I both grabbed one of his arms and started to pull him up. When we broke through the surface, I started gasping. Gazzy came over and took Fang away from me. Then, he and Iggy started to take him towards the edge of the pool and pulled him out of the water. Once they were fully out, they laid him down and me and the other girls got of the pool.

"Crap, he's knocked out. Do you think we should call 911?" Iggy asked, worried as Fang's head lolled uselessly as he lay limp on the rough concrete. I shook my head. "I don't know. I mean I know some stuff about you know how to do mouth to mouth and stuff, and I'm certified and everything but I've never actually had to do this sort of stuff," I told him.

As we crowded around Fang on our knees, I heard muffled sobbing. I turned and saw that Angel was trying to hold back tears and my face softened from it's stony state. He was like a brother to her. She must be really scared. Ella hugged her and Nudge grabbed her hand.

"Max, please just do something. I don't want him to die!" she cried. I nodded. "Don't worry Angel he's not gonna die," I told her reassuringly as I positioned myself to start doing mouth to mouth. She sniffled and nodded somberly.

"Geez, wish my hands were clean," I muttered as I opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and pressed my lips to his. His lips were amazingly soft and tasted like chocolate chip cookies. Yum. Before my thoughts could get any farther on how addicting he tasted (I'm such a loser.) I focused myself and pushed the air into his mouth. I brought my head up and took another deep breath, filling my lungs up.

As I brought my head up for the 8th time, I saw his eyelids flutter. I pressed my lips to his one more time then brought my head just as he started to cough. He turned his head and coughed out water onto the concrete and opened his eyes weakly. I hovered above and he blinked in a confused manner.

"What are you guys looking at?" he asked in a rough, schmexy- you know what, how 'bout it was just a rough voice. He propped himself up on his elbows just as Angel let out a choked sob and tackled him in a hug, her face covered in tear tracks.

**Angel POV**

"Oh my god, Fang! I was so worried! I thought- I thought that you were gonna die!" I blubbered into his shoulders as he slowly hugged. "It's alright Angel. Shh. It's fine. I'm alright. See?" he whispered in an attempt to calm me down. I pulled away and gave him a watery smile. He smiled back faintly.

"Oh god, I thought I was gonna lose you. I feel like I almost lost Gazzy again! What would I do without you Fang? You're like one of my brothers!" I started sobbing as I recalled how I had felt and I got off of him and ran into Max's waiting arms so he could get off of the concrete. She held me tightly and smoothed my wet hair down as I wrapped my arms around her waist.

**Max POV**

Fang stumbled a bit as he got up and Iggy grabbed his arm and helped him sit down on one of the pool chairs. I pulled Angel over to one and sat down with her as well. She sat down close to me and rested her head on my shoulder. I wrapped an arm around her and shot Iggy a look saying _'Lost Gazzy AGAIN?'_

He looked at me and shrugged the mouthed the word 'Later'. I nodded and rubbed Angel's back. Just then Fang touched the back of his head and winced. When he pulled his hand back it was covered in blood. I jumped up and Angel almost fell over. "Sorry! Fang, I forgot about your head! I'll wrap it up. Just wait here." I ran into his house and then, realizing that I had _no _idea where the medical stuff was in his house, I ran back out.

"Um, where exactly do you keep everything?" I asked blushing as I looked at him embarrassed. He chuckled. "Towels are in the first drawer on the right in the kitchen. Medical stuff is in the bathroom on the top shelf in the cabinet," he told me, and I nodded and ran back inside.

I went to the bathroom first and grabbed the bottle of Detol **(AN: Sort of like an alcohol that disinfects wounds. My mom used to use it on me all the time.) **and the cotton balls. I then ran to kitchen and grabbed one of the left over bowls from before and filled it with hot water and grabbed a towel.

I ran outside, trying (and failing) to keep the water from spilling. I walked over to the others quickly and set everything down on the pool chair that Fang was sitting on. I looked at the others. "You guys should relax. Go play in the pool or something. I'll have him patched up in no time." They looked at Fang uncertainly, but soon they went and jumped into the pool. Within minutes they were splashing around and laughing back to their normal happy selves.

I heard someone clear their throat and jumped a little, startled. Fang looked at me pointed to his head. "My head," he prompted and I smiled sheepishly. His face showed no emotions but I could see the amusement in his eyes. And the pain. "Sit up, criss-cross-apple-sauce," I told him. He did as I told him but gave me a look. I shrugged "What, I like saying that."

He rolled his eyes and I climbed onto the chair behind him. I pushed on his bare back slightly and blushed while he leaned forward. You could see the muscles in his back and man, you could feel how hard they were if you touched his back. Actually you know what? Forget that I just said. Kapeesh? Good.

I rubbed the back of his head and he winced and pulled away slightly. "Sorry," I mumbled. He shrugged. I liked it better when he was in a chatty mood. I ran my hand over the back of his head lightly and stopped when he winced again. I pressed down a little harder and his back muscles clenched. I pulled my hand away and found it covered in some blood. It wasn't a lot and I sighed in relief. It wasn't that bad but if it got infected there would be some serious trouble.

I grabbed the towel and dumped it into the water, then squeezed all of the water out of it. I then started dabbing at the area where the blood was. Fang didn't flinch this time and I guessed that he had prepped himself.

"Max?" He said after a couple of moments. "Hmm?" I answered. He hesitated. "What happened?" he asked me softly. "Well, you know how you hit your head on the diving board?" I started. He nodded a little. "After that, your eyes just sorta closed and you started to go under water." I gave a small, humorless chuckle. "I don't even know how but we managed to get to the 10 feet deep end. How did you guys keep Nudge and me up?" I asked him. He shrugged. I shook my head a little.

"Anyways, after that, everyone was in shock for a couple of seconds. But then Iggy and I went down and got you. Then him and Gazzy carried you out and put you on the concrete. Angel started crying and I- um well- I-I," I stuttered and stopped talking as a blush took over my face, making it bright red. "You what?" he asked me and I blushed harder.

"I had to give you mouth to mouth," I said. When I felt his neck get warm underneath my wrist I figured out that he had started to blush as well. "Oh," he said and he was quiet after that.

When I finished wiping all of the blood off (I had to part his hair to get to the cut) I set the now blood-covered towel down and wiped my hand on it. "Bowl and Detol please," I requested and he wordlessly passed both over his shoulder. I wonder what he was thinking about?

**Fang POV**

I thought about Max had said about giving me mouth to mouth and something clicked in my head. Of course! That's why I tasted peaches and felt something soft on my lips every couple of seconds! It was Max! Man, she tasted really good. I mean it was just her lips but I feel like I'm already addicted. Actually I'm just gonna shut up now. Wow, never thought that I'd be one to have a mental rant.

Suddenly I felt a sharp stinging sensation on my head and let out a sharp hiss of pain. "Sorry!" Max yelped from behind me. I felt her hand on my back and immediately relaxed at her touch.

After 2 more agonizing minutes of pain, Max was finally finished. I sighed in relief and she got up and sat down in front of me. For a couple of minutes we just sat there staring at each other. After a couple of minutes she broke the comfortable silence. "You know," she started. I raised an eyebrow at her and she continued. "We were all pretty scared. When you went under, Ella, Nudge, and Angel were all screaming while Iggy, Gazzy, and I were frozen." She looked down. "All I could think was 'Oh my god'." She looked back up and smiled at me.

I smiled back and her face brightened. She went on. "I couldn't even form a proper thought. Pretty much the only thing I was thinking was how much it would suck if my friend died. The two days after he saved me from getting raped. I guess I just really felt like I had to do something so I got Iggy to help me get you and now look. I saved your life," she finished. I smiled wanly. "I guess that that means we're even," I said. "I guess so," she replied. We grinned at each other.

The rest of the pool party was pretty good after that. I hung out with the others and we started a splash war. This day has just been filled with those, hasn't it? After another hour or two though, it was time for everyone to leave. That night I made myself almost four hotdogs and took a shower. The minute my head hit the pillow after I was dry, I fell asleep. This has been one heck of a day.

**-0000-0000-**

**Okay guys, there's chapter 4! I hoped you guys liked** **it! **

**Fang: "Of course they liked it."**

**Me: "Oh, quit trying to butter me up. You're still not getting my giant cookie. To prove my point….." –takes bite out of giant chocolate chip cookie- "Yum!"**

**Fang: "Dang it! This is all your fault Iggy!"**

**Iggy: "What? How is this my fault?"**

**Fang: "It's your fault because I said so!"**

**Iggy: "Whatever."**

**Me: -Looks at the guys weirdly- "You guys are such dorks. Anyways, I have a new fanfic that I started last month. Since you guys know me so well, you should also know that the updates take a while. Hehe. Anyways, if you liked this story than you might like my other one. It has two chapters now so, check it out. Max and Fang are currently in 6****th**** grade in that one so,yeah…**

**Anyways, review please! I really appreciate those things. Oh right, um, I have another fic account. It's called nine-taileddemonfox1597. I'll have some stories up on that one soon. And I need some ideas for the name of this fic! Some help please! Bye!**

**-MFAFL123-MajorFaxandFangLover123-**


	6. Things I hate known as Authors Notes

**Hey guys,**

**I know I haven't updated I like an amazingly long time and for that I truly feel like making myself some hate cake (I had cake on thanksgiving, but it wasn't hate cake. Sorry).**

**But I wanted to let you know that I haven't given up on my stories. I started the next chapter for C.U.T. and then after about 700 words I got writer's block. It lasted about 3 months. I knew what was supposed to happen I just couldn't put into words. But I started writing again. This story will be updated first and in about a month, the other will be too. I can't believe I was so selfish and didn't even give you guys and news as to why I hadn't updated. Now to be nice I'm going to give you a small sneak peek of the next chapter of C.U.T.**

_**Sneak Peek**_

_**Yet another twenty minutes later, I was breathing hard. "How the hell are you so damn good at basketball?" I shouted in frustration. Max was panting as well, and covered in a shiny layer of sweat, but she smirked. "I picked up a couple tricks….. in the travel league," she said smugly.**_

_**Max was tied with me at 47-47. Tied. With me. I grunted and dribbled the ball, then tried to make straight down the middle. She got straight in front of me and made a swipe for the ball. She missed and I back peddled and tried to shoot. Luckily my aim was true, and the ball swished clean through the net, not even touching the rim. Max rolled her eyes, and looked at my feet. "Shit!" she exclaimed! "What!" I looked around trying to figure out what was wrong. She groaned. "You made a three," she said. "You win!" "Oh," I said stupidly. I blinked and looked down. **_

_**She was right, I was standing behind the 3-pointer line. The goal had been first one to fifty wins and I had just scored my fiftieth point."Yes!" I said, punching my fist through the air. "Yeah, yeah, stop gloating, you stupid teenager!" she said angrily. "Aww, is little Maxie jealous?" I teased her. She growled at me and next thing I knew I was on the ground, and Max was straddling my waist, waving a fist in my face.**_

_**Sneak Peek**_

**So there you go guys. A bit longer than I had wanted to give out but you guys deserved it. So will Fang get beat up? And why is Max so angry? You'll find out soon, I promise.**

**-MFAFL123-MajorFaxandFangLover123-**


	7. Dates Ruin Everything

**Hey! I'm really sorry that I took so long to update but had a weird case of Writer's Block. It was like, I knew what I wanted 3to type, I just couldn't word it right. The beginning of this chapter is sort of a filler, but the rest of it is about a new development. Sit tight and enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the characters. All rights go to James Patterson. I only own the plot!**

**Fang POV **

Since the pool party, Max and I had become even closer. It's been about a month since I helped her in the alley, and now, we're pretty much best-friends. We don't even have to talk to each sometimes; we can have conversations just by using our eyes. Every time we do though, they others get really annoyed. It's pretty funny!

It's July now and I had met Max in the middle of June. Iggy and Gazzy didn't really mind me becoming better friends with Max. They were pretty good friends with her as well, and besides, they were getting closer to Ella and Nudge. Well, Iggy was getting closer to Ella and Gazzy was getting closer to Nudge.

Iggy was waiting for Max to tell him that he had permission to ask her little sister out. She said that if he hurt her something important to him was going to be destroyed. Not exactly sure what she means and I sure don't want to know!

Angel was going through a crisis right now though. She and her long time boyfriend Ryan had just broken up and she was constantly crying. She dumped him because she heard from one of her friends that he was messing around with another woman yet again, and I guess this time she just snapped. I never really understood what she saw in him anyways. I mean the guy was a total dickhead!

But we were helping her through it and she was getting better. The season had ended last month right after we lost to the Orlando Magic in the Semi-Finals. They went on to face the Boston Celtics and the Celtics had dominated, winning the series in the first 4 games **(AN: GO CELTICS! WOOOOHOOOOO!) **

Even though we didn't win, I thought we had done pretty well anyways. Right now, Max and I were sitting on the huge couch in my living room, watching Sherlock Holmes. It was just getting to the part where they were in the meat area, examining the dead pigs and all that (I've seen this movie 3 times already.) It was one of the colder nights and Max was wrapped up in a blanket and snuggled up next to me. I didn't really feel the cold and was dressed in a t-shirt and black basketball shorts.

"Oh my god. I hate allergies! And the cold!" Max declared after sneezing yet again. "I mean it's freaking July! I mean, that's just wro-wron-ahhhccooo!" She sneezed again and groaned.

I shook my head. "I don't feel the least bit cold. I think there's something with you," I told her. She glared at me again, but then her face scrunched up and she turned away to sneeze into her elbow. I put a hand to her forehand and pulled it away 2 seconds later. "Jesus Max! You have a flippin' fever! You just burned my hand!" I yelped. Well, she didn't literally burn my hand, but you know what I mean.

"What? I know I didn't have a fever before I came over!" she exclaimed. "Wait here, I'll go get a thermometer," I told her standing up. I ran upstairs and to the closet. I grabbed the thermometer and a couple more blankets, then ran back downstairs.

I stuck the thermometer in her mouth and left there for a few seconds. Then I pulled it out and checked her temperature. 101 degrees. "Max," I started. She looked up at me and I noticed how tired she looked. "You're going to go up to my room and sleep in my bed. I'll take the floor," I told her. She shrugged. "Can you help me up?" she asked me, holding out a pale hand. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up in one quick motion. She stumbled a bit and I placed a hand on her hip.

Max noticed and chuckled a little bit. I raised an eyebrow. "What?" I asked her. She gestured to our position with her free hand seeing as I was still lightly holding on to her other one. "We look like we're dancing," she said, and then she yawned. I rolled my eyes and let go over hand and her hip letting both of my hands drop to my side. She started towards the stairs and I followed her, walking slightly slower.

When we got to my room, I grabbed a blanket from the closet and then a pillow from my bed and dropped them on the floor. Max stretched and I could see part of her flat stomach as her shirt rode up a bit. I quickly looked away and shook my head. I have to stop thinking about her like that! _Thump!_ I looked back over at her to see that she had fallen back on my bed and was already fast asleep. I smirked and walked out of my room and went back downstairs. I turned off the movie and walked into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. After I had gotten one I went back upstairs and made myself comfortable on the floor. Within minutes I fell asleep.

**-0000-0000-**

"Fang. Fang, come on wake up!" I heard someone saying my name over and over again and shaking my shoulder. "Five more minutes," I mumbled sleepily and I heard the person laugh. I turned on my side to position myself more comfortably and I heard a 'Thump!' Blearily, I opened my eyes, blinking the sleep out of them. Max was on the ground groaning in pain and rubbing the back of her head "Max, why are you on the ground?" I asked her. "I was trying to wake you up, but then you went and turned over!" she said, glaring at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "What does me turning over have to do with you falling onto the ground?" She rolled her eyes. "I was sitting on your stomach because I thought that the extra weight might make your stomach hurt and then you would wake up. But that didn't work so I went back to yelling at you," she told as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "I even resorted to punching you in the stomach to wake you up. Ended up hurting my hand." I chuckled at that and she fake pouted. "Why were you trying to wake me up?" I asked her. "Because I want BREAKFAST," she said, her voice sounding strained on the word breakfast. "And since I'm the guest you have to cook," she said sounding triumphant. "Wait a minute, I do not have to make you breakfast. Why can't you make it yourself?" I asked her feeling slightly miffed. She actually blushed and mumbled, "Because I can't cook worth shit."

I blinked. _Then, _I burst out laughing.

"You- you can't cook?" I managed to get out through totally uncharacteristic laughter. What can I say? Max brings out the side of me no one really sees. She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest waiting for me to stop laughing. When it became apparent that I wasn't going to be stopping anytime soon, she glared at me and whacked me upside the head. I yelped and protected myself from her punches and smacks. "Ow! Hey, hey wait- ouch! Hey that hurts!" She joined me in laughing as she kept hurting me. Finally the assault ended when I caught her in a headlock.

"Okay," she wheezed as we both tried to catch our breath. "I think that's the most I've laughed, ever," I said chuckling breathlessly. "That's GREAT, honestly," she said sarcastically. She started tugging at my arms. "Now can you let go of me?" I released her head and she rubbed her neck. "Jeez, you've got quite a grip there huh." She mumbled while I stretched. I stood up and pulled her up. Cracking my knuckles, I suddenly remembered something. "Hey do you still have that fever?"She shrugged. "I don't know." I pressed a hand to forehead. She felt fine. "It's gone. You're fine," I told her. She grinned. "Yes! I'm cured!" I raised an eyebrow, yet again. "What do you mean you're cured? It was just a fever," I said. She shrugged again. "Whatever you say Fang." I rolled my eyes and we went downstairs.

She slid onto one of the stools by the bar thing in my kitchen and looked at me. I rolled my eyes. "What do you want for breakfast?" "Bacon and eggs!" she said almost immediately. I went and took the bacon out of the fridge and grabbed a frying pan. "You forgot the eggs," she chided me. I shook my head and went back to the fridge and took the eggs out as well. "There, happy?" I asked her. She nodded. "Very much," she said.

I cooked the food on the stove and when it was done put it on a plate and gave it to her, then started to load up my own plate. "Orange juice!" she shouted out as I slid into my seat. I gave her a look. "Fine, I'll get it myself," she muttered. She got up and went to the fridge. "Berry Punch!" I called. She groaned but proceeded to pull out my juice.

**-0000-0000-**

20 minutes later we were done with breakfast and deciding what to do next. "Hey how's about we play some b-ball!" Max said enthusiastically. I smirked. "Alright," I said. "As long as you're excited to get your butt kicked." A sly look came over her face. "Yeah, sure," she said off-handedly. I grabbed a basketball and we headed outside. I had a full length court outside in my backyard next to the pool.

I checked it to her. She bounce-passed it back. "Let's do this thing," I said, rolling my shoulders. She grinned. The game started.

**-0000-0000-**

Yet another twenty minutes later, I was breathing hard. "How the hell are you so damn good at basketball?" I shouted in frustration. Max was panting as well, and covered in a shiny layer of sweat, but she smirked. "I picked up a couple tricks….. in the travel league," she said smugly.

Max was tied with me at 47-47. _Tied. _With _me._ I grunted and dribbled the ball, then tried to make straight down the middle. She got straight in front of me and made a swipe for the ball. She missed and I back peddled and tried to shoot. Luckily my aim was true, and the ball swished clean through the net, not even touching the rim. Max rolled her eyes, and looked at my feet. "Shit!" she exclaimed! "What!" I looked around trying to figure out what was wrong. She groaned. "You made a three," she said. "You win!" "Oh," I said stupidly. I blinked and looked down.

She was right, I was standing behind the 3-pointer line. The goal had been first one to fifty wins and I had just scored my fiftieth point."Yes!" I said, punching my fist through the air. "Yeah, yeah, stop gloating, you stupid teenager!" she said angrily. "Aww, is little Maxie jealous?" I teased her. She growled at me and next thing I knew I was on the ground, and Max was straddling my waist, waving a fist in my face.

"I am not jealous you idiot! I just really wanted to win and beat your big head back to its normal size!" she yelled, her face red and her eyes filled with anger, outrage, and….. sadness. "Alright, alright, Maxie isn't jealous, Maxie isn't jealous!" I yelped not wanting to get punched by a very angry girl. When girls are mad, they hit hard. And I mean _hard_. She huffed and crossed her arms. "And stop calling me Maxie. I haven't been called that since the 3rd grade," she muttered, blushing a bit.

All of a sudden I was sucked back into a memory from back when I was in elementary school.

_-Flashback-_

_I was in third grade sitting on a swing on the play ground next to a small girl with freckles, large chocolaty brown eyes, and dirty blonde hair. We had been swinging a moment before but now we were just swaying slightly. _

_ "Fangy?" the little girl piped up after a moment, grabbing my small hand in hers._

_ "Yeah Maxie?" I asked. _

_ "You'll always be my friend, won't you?" she asked, sounding a little scared._

_ "Of course! Why wouldn't I?" I asked my eyes wide._

_ "I don't know. I just wanted to make sure," she said shyly._

"_Oh, okay. Don't worry Maxie. I'll always be there for you!" I said I smiled widely and felt the gap in my teeth where my tooth had just recently come out._

"_Thank you Fangy!" The young girl through her skinny arms around my neck and pressed her lips against my own lightly. My eyes widened and my mouth hung wide open in shock as my cheeks were covered in a red glow from my blush. Her arms unwrapped and she blushed a dark red._

"_How's about we just pretends that that never happened?" she asked me. I nodded numbly still shocked. As we ran around playing tag, the one thing running through my eight year old head was 'She tasted like chocolate chip cookies'._

_-End Flashback-_

Max looked down at me warily, her hand positioned as if to slap me. All of a sudden a stinging sensation and sharp pain filled my face and I yelled out in pain and covered the right side of my face with my hand. I looked up at her and saw relief flowing into her features.

"Good, you're back to normal. I thought I was going to have to slap you again." I looked at her incredulously. "You slapped me! Why?" I asked wincing as I probed the quickly forming bruise. "And how many times did you slap me?"

She rolled her eyes. "You like fainted or something. You wouldn't respond when I called your name but your breathing was normal and you didn't seem to be in any pain. So when calling your name didn't work, I started lightly slapping your face. You still didn't do anything so I started slapping harder. I must've slapped you, oh, 7 times," she said nonchalantly. I looked up at her outraged.

"So you decided that it was alright to slap me repeatedly as hard as you could?" I yelled at her. Her eyes narrowed into slits **(AN: This is so not what I had in mind but, what the heck! Let's see where it goes!)** "I was worried that something bad had happened so I started trying to wake you up. Now you're yelling at me for being a good friend?" she asked icily.

"No I'm yelling at you because I have a date tonight and I can't just show up with a gigantic bruise on my face and say 'Oh hey no, worries, this girl I know gave it to me!' She'll think I dump every girl I go out with and you're the first one who had the nerve to do something about and she'll dump me on the spot!" I yelled back with so much anger that she jumped a little bit and fell off of me. She landed on the ground and looked up at me with a hurt look and tears welling up in her eyes.

"Well, I'm _sorry_. If I had _known_ that you were going on a date I never would have woken you up like that. But, I _didn't know_ even though I am one of your best-friends. Guess I'm not a good enough friend though, huh?" Through the sarcasm dripping in her voice I could hear the betrayal. She got up quickly and stumbled a little bit. I got up with vigor and took a step towards her. She held out her hand and shook her head.

"No Fang, just stay away from me. I knew this friendship wouldn't work out, but I gave it a shot anyways. You just proved me right. I thought you were nice but you're just a jerk and a guy who just cares about his public appearance, like though Jersey Shore freaks!" she yelled, while looking away.

I felt my heart rip. I knew who the little girl in my memory had been the second I had seen her. I didn't even have to hear her name. Of course it had been Max. I was the reason why she didn't like to be called Maxie anymore. I didn't know why, but I had wanted to find out. She had been my first kiss, and my first- my-my first….. Gah! I can't even say it in my head! My first love! There I thought it! My first love! I now I had just hurt her.

Even if I don't love her anymore I still felt bad for hurting her. She's still my best-friend, I'm going to fight to keep it that way!

**-0000-0000-**

2 hours later I was sitting with my head underneath my pillow, my hands clutching it, pulling it down tighter over my head.

After I had tried to apologize, Max had turned around walked into my house and grabbed her stuff, then turned around and stormed out. I had been frozen until I heard the front door banging shut. I had run out front but she was already gone. I tried calling her house (I figured if I called her cell she would just ignore them) but she disconnected it.

Now I got out of my bed and walked over to my bathroom. I looked in the bathroom and saw black hollow eyes staring back out at me. I looked so dead. I shook my head and tried to smile slightly in the mirror. It came out more like a grimace. God I sound like such a goddamned women! Why do I care what I look like?

Well I guess I should care a little bit. I am going on a date tonight. I tried to think of what my date even looked like. My head had been so wrapped around the thoughts of making things up to Max that I hadn't even bothered to think about my date.

I pictured the girl in my head. She was tall, slim, had long brown hair, and soft blue eyes. Her name was J.J. I had met her at one of my games, since she was one of the cheerleaders. The great thing was that she was actually nice. And funny.

I had a little crush on her. Had had one on her for about 6 months and last week I had finally had the nerve to ask her out. I just hadn't had the nerve to tell Max.

**-0000-0000-**

Right now it was 8:21 and I was getting ready to leave for my date. I nervously readjusted my black shirt. We were going to Ooka's and I had to go casual but dressy so I was wearing a black t-shirt that had buttons going down to the middle of my chest and dark gray cargo shorts, with my Nike Shox pulled on. I glanced at the phone in vain hope.

I had tried to call Max multiple times, even calling Ella so I could talk to her on her sister's phone. Of course that tactic hadn't worked. As soon as I had made the slightest of noises she had hung up on me. I had thrown my phone (a Pantech Laser) across the room so hard that it hit the wall and now it has three tiny little cracks on it. I'll probably have to replace it soon (the funny thing is that right after I threw it I ran over to it, picked it up, and started apologizing to it. Yeah I love my phone).

I looked at the clock again. 8:25, time to leave. I grabbed my keys and headed outside. I slid into my Camaro and turned it on. I pulled out of the driveway and drove out of my neighborhood, then drove five minutes to J.J.'s house. I picked her up and as I drove the car we made a little bit of small talk. I stumbled over some of the words in my nervousness and she giggled.

"So Fang, where are we going?" she asked me, raising an eyebrow. I hadn't actually known where we were going to eat when we had set up the date so I had told her that I would tell her on the night of the date. "We're going to Ooka's," I said, feeling relaxed. She made feel good, and the feeling felt familiar but I couldn't place from where.

"I hope you like seafood and Japanese food." She nodded happily. "Ooka's is like my favorite!" she exclaimed. "Good," I said warmly. As we pulled in I looked across the lot at Giants. I saw a figure walking in to the grocery store and as they passed underneath the streetlamp I saw a flash of long dirty-blonde hair. I sucked in air quickly. Was that Max? I took a closer look. No. I felt myself deflate in disappointment. It was just some teenage girl.

"Hey you okay?" I started out of surprise. I had completely forgotten that J.J. was there! "Oh, yeah I'm fine. Sorry just got a little sidetracked for a second," I said honestly. She smiled sympathetically. "That's alright," she said. "Let's just go in, okay?" I nodded and opened my door.

Quickly I walked to the other side of the car and opened her door for her. She giggled. "Such a gentleman," she said a little mockingly. I shrugged and we walked into the restaurant. I got us a table and we were led to it. Our waiter handed us some menus and left.

I took a look at the menus and grimaced. "Wow, this restaurant really can't wait to empty out people's wallets can it?" I heard a laugh and looked up to see… Max? She was looking at her menu as well and felt my gaze on her. She looked up and smiled at me warmly, her brown eyes sparkling in happiness. I smiled a little bit and blinked.

Max was gone.

In her place was J.J., sitting there in her knee-length green dress, smiling at me. I felt the disappointment of it not being Max sitting across the table from hit me hard, and I quickly looked back down at the menu so she couldn't see the smile slip off of my face to be replaced by hurt and sadness.

I made my decision right then. I didn't care if I was on a date. My friendship with Max came before going out with a girl I had never really even talked to before. I hoped that J.J. would understand what I was about to do. I stood up quickly letting the menu fall down onto the table. J.J. looked up at me confused.

"J.J., listen," I began. "I'm really sorry but I can't be here right now. I have to leave. I hurt a good friend of mine today, and I need to fix what I did," I told her. She smiled in understanding. "I thought that there was something off about you today. You didn't have that warm glow that you've had for the past month to you today. You seemed sorta sad," she said getting up and smoothing down her dress.

She grabbed her purse just as the waiter came up. "Sorry but we won't be eating here today," I said hurriedly taking out my wallet. I pulled out a twenty and stuffed it into his hand and J.J. and I quickly left Ooka's. We got into my car and I left the parking lot.

As we pulled up outside of her house, I turned to JJ with an apologetic smile on my face. "I really am sorry," I said again. She smiled at me and said, "That's okay. I probably would have done the same thing." "Maybe we can try this again some other time?" I asked her hopefully. She nodded resolutely. "Definitely," she said as she got out of my car. "Bye!" I said quickly as she began to shut the door. She waved and closed it, then turned towards her house and began walking to it.

I put my car into drive and sped off towards Max's house. It's time to apologize to, and hopefully win back, my best-friend.

**Well I hoped you enjoyed that chapter. I tried to fill it with drama. Please review and all that jazz. Love you guys, you're great for sticking with me for so long! Next chapter might be up within 3 months not really sure, it all depends on homework. And in case any of you were wondering, in my story, Maxa dn Fang show a little bit more emotion, such as hurt and that sort of stuff.  
**

**See ya next time!**

**-MFAFL123-MajorFaxandFangLover123- **


	8. Possessed

**Hello! How's it going? This was pretty early for an update wasn't it? I think I really out did myself this time! But I have bad news. For those of you who read it, I'm either quitting or going on a very long hiatus for my story 'Young Love'. I just wanted to let you guys know. Anyways I'll just go straight to the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride does not belong to me. All rights go to James Patterson. Only the plot belongs to me. **

**-0000-0000-**

**Fang POV**

Within minutes I had arrived at Max and Ella's house. I stopped the engine as I sat in the growing shadows, wondering how Max was going to react when she saw me standing outside her house. Knowing her, probably not very well.

I opened the door and stepped out of my Camaro. Slowly, I made my way up the pathway and to the front door. I rang the doorbell, not breathing. For a couple of seconds nothing happened. Then I could hear footsteps padding down the hallway. As the door opened I could hear music playing, specifically, 3 Days Grace's 'Over and Over'. I almost blushed at the meaning of the lyrics at the moment.

"_Over and Over,_

_Over and Over,_

_I fall for you, _

_Over and Over,_

_Over and Over_

_I try not too!"_

The door was open fully now and there stood Max herself, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She blinked and looked up at me. Her eyes went from tired to a burning anger. I flinched a little and opened my mouth to say something.

The door slammed in my face before I could even get a word out. I could already hear her stomping down the hallway.

I tried to ring the doorbell again but she turned up the music so much that you could clearly hear it from almost 10 feet away. I lowered my head dejectedly and walked back towards my car. As I put the key into the slot, I stopped.

I understood why she didn't want me here but that didn't mean that I couldn't stay here just because I wanted to. Okay yeah it probably did but hey, I was not going to move!

A couple of hours later, I was still sitting in my car. I had tried calling her, texting her, and even ringing the doorbell a couple more times. Finally, I had had enough. I opened my door and quietly stepped out. She probably thought that I had gone home after the last attempt. Stealthily, I crept from my car into her backyard. Her house had a lot of windows back there. Her living room was one of the rooms facing the backyard and I hid behind some bushes so that I could see her but she couldn't see me. I peered through the branches. Max was sitting on the couch and eating some chocolate chip cookies. But her face….. her face had tear streaks all over it and her eyes were red. Even from about twenty feet away I could clearly see these details.

I fell backwards. I had made Max cry. Me, Fang, I had made a girl that I had once been in love with cry! The thought that I was the reason that made Max hurt so bad hit me like a punch in the gut. I scrambled back to my feet just into time to see Max get up and walk up the stairs. I shot over to the point where I knew her window was. Her room was on the third floor s I quickly tried to find a way up. I noticed that there was a tree whose branch stopped almost directly in front of Max's wide open window. And it was the perfect climbing tree. I quickly maneuvered through the branches and came out sort of sitting on the branch that led to the window.

I carefully moved down the branch. _'I feel like a teenager again'_ I thought to myself. Except I usually wasn't sneaking out to meet a girl. As I got to the end I could see Max lying face down on her bed, shaking slightly. She was crying again.

I reached the end of the branch and took a deep breath. _'Here we go,'_ I thought to myself and I took a huge jump. I sailed through her window and landed on the ground in a kneeling position. I took a shaky breath and smiled a little bit. _"Fang!"_ Max yelled from behind me. I turned around and sat down on the floor, grinning slightly. "Yes Max?" I asked her. My smile faded as I noticed the all too fresh tears on her face. "What the HELL are you doing in my house?" she yelled angrily. I frowned a little. "Well you wouldn't open the door or answer any of my messages so I came to see you," I stated. A little bit of surprise was on her face but the anger was still there, burning full force. "So you thought that you'd break into my house just because I wouldn't answer you? Did you ever think that maybe there was a reason as to why I didn't want to answer you? Did you?" she yelled at me.

Just as I was about to answer her I heard Ella's voice float up the stairs.

"Hey Max, I'm home! Hey Fang's car is parked outside. Is he here too?" she asked. Max was about to open her mouth to answer and for some reason I panicked. I didn't want Ella to know that I had sort of broken into her home. She'd tell Iggy and then Iggy would come after me! Usually Iggy's harmless but sometimes he can get really angry. He might blow me up or something! So I did the first thing that came to my mind. I kissed her. I grabbed her face and pulled it towards mine, pressing my lips against hers. At first she struggled a little but then she finally gave in closing her eyes. Mine slipped shut too.

Kissing Max was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Her lips were soft and tasted like a mixture of chocolate chip cookies and peaches. Except that it tasted amazing. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she pressed her body against mine. Her tongue slipped against my lips and I opened my mouth. I slid my hands from her face and behind her arms, down her torso and let them rest around her hips. She shivered and pulled me even closer. I pushed her backwards and her legs hit her bed frame. I pushed her backwards again and she fell back this time, landing on her bed with me pulled down on top of her.

"Well, I guess they're outside or something then," I heard Ella say. I couldn't tell how far away she was, and at the moment, I didn't really care. I was too busy kissing Max. Max was underneath me and I was propping myself up while letting a little bit of my weight rest on her. As my tongue slipped into her mouth, I felt her legs wrap around my waist. Her hands ran through my hair and I moaned as she slipped her hand down the back of my shirt, letting her fingertips glide across my shoulder blades. I slid my right hand down her waist and slowly trailed it up her leg. Since it was like 10:30, Max was wearing her pajamas which consisted of a loose t-shirt a sweatshirt and a pair of…..short shorts. Shortly after my hand was going up her leg, I hit bare skin. Electricity shocked me and my eyes flew open while Max gasped.

I suddenly realized that I was making out with my best-friend…..on a bed! I closed my mouth and pulled away from her. As my lips left hers I heard a small noise come from her. It sounded like… A whimper? Her eyes snapped open as I climbed off of her and stepped backwards then tripped landing on my butt. My face felt as if it were on fire I turned my face and found myself looking in a mirror.

My hair was messy and my cheeks were shaded a dark red. Max was blushing hard, her face completely red and I noticed now that her sweatshirt had come off and that her shirt had ridden up, almost to her bra. I could just see the light purple of it. I blushed even harder as I think of what could've happened. We, we- we could've had sex right now! I must've had my hand up her shirt while hers was under mine. Now that I thought about it, I did feel the strap underneath my fingers at one point. I had been in the process of undoing it when my hand had brushed against her leg!

"Max, I'm so sorry! I seriously did not expect for that to happen!" I whispered frantically. "I just came by to say sorry, and then you were about tell Ella that I had like broken into your house and I didn't want Iggy to blow me sky high, and I just panicked!" Max's mouth was closed but her eyes had a slightly glazed look to them. "THAT," she began, putting an emphasis on the word 'that'. "That was by far the best 'I'm sorry' I have ever gotten," she finished her sentence, sounding like she was talking to herself. But the words caused a whole new round of redness to come to my face. She seemed to come back to reality because she blushed again and pulled her shirt down.

"I'm so sorry though. I was like possessed or something!" I said trying to make her understand. "Yeah I know, I- I understand," she said stuttering a little bit. I cradled my head in my hand, trying to organize my mixed-up thoughts. I had let my self-control slip and had almost ended up having sex with Max. I didn't even know what I was doing! And I liked it. I still wanted more. I wanted to feel her body underneath mine again. I loved it. The feeling, the taste, her- No, no, no, wait! I am not in love with Max! I'm not! I'm only 23, I'm too young to fall in love!

As I looked up at her from underneath my bangs I looked at her. Like, really looked at her. She was sitting on her bed, her long legs crossed. Her skin was lightly tanned and her dirty blonde hair was in a loose bun that was about to fall out from what had just happened. Her t-shirt was a dark purple and hung on her fit frame loosely. Her cheeks had a pale pink flush to them and her lips looked more red than usual. My gaze lingered on her lips, but I tore my gaze away from her mouth and looked into her eyes. The soft color made me feel like I was looking into a vat of melted milk chocolate.

All of a sudden a sharp pain flared in my back and I cried out. "OW!" Max looked at me in surprise. I felt something wet trickledown my back and when I turned around I saw that there was a small pool of blood right behind me. My head felt dizzy for a couple of seconds and when it stopped spinning I saw that Max crouching in front of me. I blinked. "Huh, that hurts," I mumbled. Then I passed out.

**-0000-0000-**

I opened my eyes and groaned a little bit, then smiled. My dream had been amazing last night. I had been making out with Max on her bed and she took off her shirt and- and it was just amazing. Even though it was only a dream, just thinking about it almost turned me on. God, she was so sexy! I raised my head and found myself looking at electric blue walls. _'Wait a minute…..THIS ISN'T MY ROOM!' _I thought, panicked. I looked down and saw that I wasn't wearing a shirt. It had been hastily tossed over the edge of the bed. OH. MY. GOD! Did I actually almost have sex with Max last night! TWICE? I remembered the first time when I had kissed her when Ella came home, but I couldn't remember the second one! I began to roll over but as I began twisting, the pain that came from my back made me scream.

I heard the pounding of feet and what I saw almost made me cry in relief for two reasons. Max stood there and reason number one was: she was wearing a shirt and didn't look like she had just had a hot make-out session last night. Reason two: she was holding a damp towel and a first-aid kit that was probably for my back. "Fang! Are you alright? I heard you scream and I ran straight from the bathroom!" she said worriedly, coming over and sitting on the bed next to me. I saw a light blush come to her cheeks as she quickly looked over my body her eyes resting on my back for a moment then flickering up to my eyes.

"My back hurts real bad. Max?" I began to ask. "Yeah?" she said quietly. "I have two questions. One: did we almost have…sex last night?" I asked carefully. Her eyebrows scrunched together. "Aside from when I said that that kiss you gave me had been the best 'I'm sorry I have ever gotten' no," she told me sounding slightly confused. An amused look came over her features. "Why, did you dream that you were having sex with me last night Fang?" she asked me teasingly. "I thought you had a crush on J.J.!" I blushed hard and quickly stuttered out. "N-no. And I guess I do have a crush on J.J. but that's none of your bees wax!" I shot back playfully.

She rolled her eyes but pushed me down so that she could treat my back. "Now this cut you have on your back doesn't look too good Fang. It's about eight inches long and it looks pretty deep. I'll probably have to wrap the bandage around your whole torso just to make sure that it's covered properly. Now just hold still. This is gonna hurt, I won't lie to you," she told me. I winced as she put the towel on my stinging cut.

Her movements were gentle and at some points she had to lie on me just to make sure I didn't hurt myself and reopen the wound when it stung really badly. Not that I'm complaining. Fifteen minutes later she picked up a paper towel that was covered in splinters. "Now I'm gonna start wrapping your back," she told me, walking out of the room to throw out the paper towel and get the bandage. "Hey, Max?" I called out. "Yeah Fang?" she responded her voice a little faint because of the distance. "I just have one suggestion for you. Never become a doctor!" She laughed and I felt myself smile in response.

"Shut up!" she said as she walked back into the room. She kneeled on the bed and helped me sit up without hurting myself. She began to wrap the bandage around the middle of my torso. Her hands brushed against me, and every time they did, I froze up a little as electric currents ran up and down my body.

"There, all done!" Max said sounding satisfied, a little while later. I sighed in contentment and Max smiled shyly at me. My smile faded as I remembered the whole reason I had come last night. I looked down and saw her frown from the corner of my eye. She put a hand on my bare shoulder and before I could stop myself, I let out another happy sigh. I took her hand and played with her fingers. I looked up at her from underneath my bangs.

"Max?" I whispered. "What's wrong Fang?" she asked me sounding a little sad herself. I looked up at her. "I am so sorry that I hurt you yesterday. I shouldn't have yelled you. I mean, you were worried about me." I shook my head angrily. "God, I was such a jerk!" I said, hating myself a little bit. "Hey, it's alright-" she began. "No! It's not alright! You're my best-friend! I shouldn't be treating you like that!" I interrupted her. "Fang!" she shouted at me with such force that I looked up at her again. "It's not all your fault. I shouldn't have been so easily aggravated and I should definitely not have slapped you so hard! It's partially my fault too, you understand?" I nodded somberly.

"Good!" she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight, but making sure she didn't hurt my back. I wrapped my arms around her tightly and pulled her towards me. She sat in between my legs with her shoulder pressed into my chest. She blushed and looked at me. "Just remember how sorry I am, and how happy I am that you're my best-friend now and Iggy isn't," I said, earning a laugh from her. I let go of her and she got up, holding out a hand to help me. I took it and electricity shocked me. Apparently it hit her too because she dropped my hand and looked at her hand in wonder. She tried again and this time when the electric shock came she just held onto my hand. "Now let's go get some Denny's!" she said cheerfully.

I shrugged and looked around and picked up my shirt. I sighed. "What?" Max asked me. I held up my shirt. "I can't go out wearing this. It has a giant cut going down the back!" She frowned and then smiled as she got an idea. "I swear to god, if you make me wear one of your shirts, I'll strangle you," I said cautiously. She laughed. "No need! I still have your sweatshirt!" She ran over to her closet and pulled my black sweatshirt off of one of the hangers.

She handed it to me and said, "Here you go. Now can we please go get some breakfast?" she said whining a little at the end. I rolled my eyes and gingerly pulled my sweatshirt on. I shifted it around and said, "Okay, let's go. And we're taking _my _car." She squealed happily. "Yes! I love your car!" She ran out the door, down the stairs and waited in the living room. I sighed. "Geez, that girl really likes bacon and pancakes!" I said exasperatedly.

**-0000-0000-**

**Well, there's the end of this chapter! How'd you guys like it? I know** **it seemed as if she forgave him too early, but really who can stay mad at a guy especially when you just had a make-out session with him, he's hurt, and he's hot? It just wouldn't make sense. **

**Anyways, please review and I wanted to ask you guys to check out my new story thing called 'Maximum Ride shorts and oneshots'! I think it was pretty good!**


	9. Breakfast, Tree Houses, and Chef Iggy

**WOW. WRITER'S BLOCK SUCKS. I can't believe I took so long on this one. This time I had no idea what was gonna happen. I had started this chapter months ago and then every time I came back to it, I couldn't get past the part where he asks for the check! Can you believe that? **

**Anyways, I'm gonna work my butt off so you guys can have a some what good reading experience. But I might take a hiatus so that I can get ahead and have a few chapters ready to publish and keep this story moving at a decent pace. I wanted to let you know so that, when that happens in the near future, you won't be that shocked.**

**So, sorry to all of my readers out there. I would like to thank Paco the Loser for kicking me out of my slump because of a review they sent me a few days ago. **

**I'm done stalling you. READ AWAY.**

**Disclaimer: I don't anything but the plot. **

Picking up my mug, I took a long sip of the hot coffee. In front of me, Max was steadily swallowing down her two pancakes, two slices of bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and strawberry crepe.

Setting down the warm beverage, I chuckled, wiping at my mouth with the back of my hand. Max stopped eating long enough to up at me and arch an eyebrow. "What?" she mumbled around the bacon hanging out of her mouth.

"Nothing. It's just that you eat as much as I do. When I'm food deprived! Which, in all honesty, is pretty much every day that Iggy isn't cooking for me," I said amusedly. She shrugged and sipped her water and wiped her mouth with her napkin.

"I'm just really hungry. That's all. I didn't get a chance to have lunch or dinner yesterday sooo…" she said picking up her fork and twirling it between her fingers. "Why not?" I asked. Realization dawned on me. "Oh. Never mind." She nodded.

After a couple more minutes of the sound of clinking silverware, we were both done. I stretched my arms above my head and sighed. Max yawned, bringing one hand to up to cover her mouth. Her nose scrunched up and I smiled a little.

"I have a question," she said as we waited for our waiter to come back so that we could get our check. "And what would that question be?" I asked, folding my arms down on the table and resting my head on them. "How can you eat so much and still look like….. that?" she asked, the last word coming out in an embarrassed tone. I lifted my head up and smirked. "I could ask you the same thing. But, I have a high metabolism, so calories are burned easily. And since I practice every day, they get burned off within hours."

Max nodded. "Same for me. Except my exercise comes from kick boxing." I rolled my eyes. "What?" she asked. "Figures you'd be into something like kick boxing," I said teasingly. She smiled sheepishly.

"Well, hey, when you have an excuse to round house kick someone and say it was just self-defense….." she shrugged and laughed. I pulled my baseball cap down to cover my eyes as the waiter came around. Hey, who said I couldn't go out into public and act like a civilian?

"Are you all finished up here?" he asked politely. I nodded and looked up just enough so that I didn't seem suspicious, but not enough that he could recognize me. "Yeah, I'll take the check." He smiled politely. "Sure thing." He left and I drank the rest of my coffee.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Max asked me looking out the window at the cars on the highway. I shrugged.

"Not sure," I said putting the mug. Max looked at me with a thoughtful expression. Her eyes lit up as she thought of something.

"Hey, I know! We could go to the park!" she said excitedly.

The waiter came back and put the checkbook on the table, then wandered off again. I looked at the price and then showed it to Max. She nodded and pulled out her wallet, proceeding to put down in change half of the bill. I paid the other half and the tip and we pushed back our chairs and stood up. I stretched and started towards the exit.

"The park's good. Let's go." I held the door open for her and she skipped towards my Camaro. I shook my head in amusement. Sometimes that woman is strange.

**-0000-0000-**

"So anything coming up soon?" Max asked me as she laid back on the grass and watched the clouds. I laid down next to her and put my hands behind my head.

"Yup. Practice starts up again next week. Kill me now," I said, lacing the last sentence with sarcasm. She laughed.

"You need it. Somebody's starting to look flabby around the edges," she said slyly.

I glared at her. "Am NOT. Wait….. Were you _checking me out _this morning?" I asked. She blushed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"No! I wasn't checking you out!" she snapped. I laughed at her. "You know, if you keep on making fun of me, it's always only going to end in you being in pain. Emotionally and/ or physically," she said, glaring at me and sitting up as I continued to laugh.

I managed to calm down enough to only be chuckling. "Did you just add the word "slash" to that? Who does that?" She pouted and I finally stopped laughing. "Ok, I'm done."

"Good," she mumbled. She looked back up at the clouds, randomly pointed to one. "What does that look like to you?" I squinted slightly and followed her finger. She was pointing at a cloud that was thin and pointed at one end then exploded into a larger shape that, as I looked hard at it, began to take shape.

"It… it kinda looks like a puppy running around with its tail wagging and its tongue hanging out of its mouth," I said. **(AN: I actually saw a cloud that looked like that a few days ago. So I decided to put "Puppy Cloud" in here!)**

"That's what I thought! And that one looks like a orange construction cone." She pointed to another one. For the next hour, we just laid on the ground pointing out different clouds. Sometimes we disagreed and started arguing, but the arguments just ended in laughter.

"Max?" I said as we just quietly stared at the sky.

"Hmm?" she answered.

"What park is this?"

"I think it's Maplegrove. Why?" I quickly got to my feet and brushed myself off.

"I just remembered that, when I was younger, I found a really cool hideout over here. I went there whenever my dad and I fought. You wanna see it?"

She smiled up at me. "Sure."

I pulled her up and, after she had adjusted her clothing (Which got messed up from lying on the ground people!) she followed me as I walked towards the back of the park. There was a wood in the back where people could walk on the designated paths for a walk in the cooler area. We walked along the path for a few moments until I saw something that looked slightly familiar.

As I continued to go through areas I recognized, the memory of my hideout slowly came back.

Soon I found myself mumbling to myself. "Take a left here, duck under the huge branch here…" Everything was exactly the way it had been five years ago. Just a little more overgrown. Ten minutes later, I smiled as I realized that we had come to the end. I turned around suddenly and Max ran into my chest.

"Oomph!" she pulled away from my steadying hands and rubbed her nose. "You could've at least told me you were stopping," she muttered. I chuckled.

"We're here. What your about to see… well I've never really shown it to anyone else." She looked up at me her eyes shining.

"Seriously?" she asked happily. I nodded. "I feel so appreciated!" she said. "Can we see it now?" I stepped back and walked over to a broken piece of a fallen branch that was almost twice as tall as me. I put my shoulder against it and pushed out of the way, grunting at the exertion. Soon it fell out of the way and a hole in the shrubbery was revealed. I ducked through and came out on the other side, moving so Max had room to come through as well.

As soon as she looked around, Max covered her hands with her mouth. We were standing at the top of a fifteen foot tall waterfall. Farther up the fast flowing river was a tall tree where a tree house hid within the intertwining branches.

"Fang, this is amazing! How did you find this place?" Max asked as she ran over to the tree house and tested the steps nailed into the trunk.

I shrugged. "You'd be surprised at the stuff you can find when you're running around in blind rage. This just happened to be one of those things," She climbed up after deeming that it was safe and stuck her head out of one of the windows.

"And you built this all by yourself?" she called down to me. I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.

"Well, you aren't the only person besides myself whose been here. Sure you're the first person who I willingly brought here, but, one time, my dad came looking for me and found me over here sitting in that tree. He helped me build it. Sure it's something people tend to do when they're five, but hey, never too late for some father son bonding right?" At the end of my rather short, yet somehow long story, Max laughed.

"That's nice," she said sincerely. "So, are you gonna come up or what?"

"Coming!" I said, grabbing onto the step above my head. I pulled myself up and climbed onto the "porch" of my old tree house. It was actually pretty big, seeing as the tree was huge and that when I had built it, I had been sixteen. Dried, dead leaves littered the floor with a few empty chip bags mixed into the mess.

"Jeez, I used to be such a slob," I said kicking an empty soda can. Max was sitting on a cleared area of floor.

"We should clean it up and bring some lightweight furniture up here! That would be so cool," she said wistfully. I raised my eyebrows and smiled.

"You know, that's not such a bad idea. We could do that," I said. "Do you want to start tomorrow?"

"Sure!"

**-0000-0000-**

Around two o'clock, Max and I climbed out of the tree house and left the waterfall, due to my grumbling stomach. We left the woods hurriedly, hoping to get back to my house in time for Iggy's cooking. I had already called him and told him that Max would be joining us. Soon, we were pulling into my drive way and racing into my house.

"I win!" Max shouted triumphantly as her hand smacked down on the marble counter a second before mine. I pouted.

"No fair! You shoved me into a wall!" I complained.

"Hey. Nice to see you too guys!" Iggy's voice came from somewhere to my side, sounding sarcastic. Max shrieked in surprise while I stumbled back a couple of steps, smacked my head into a wall and swore.

"Holy shit Iggy! When did you get here?" Iggy was standing by the stove with a hand on his hip and an apron that said "Kiss the Cook" **(AN: I know, I know, but I couldn't come up with anything clever on such short notice.)**.

"Like, twenty minutes ago," Iggy said in amusement, having accomplished his task of the day, AKA: scaring the piss out of Max and I. He pointed at the pan that was currently sitting on the stove. "The mashed potatoes are already done!" he exclaimed.

Max looked at him. "You made mashed potatoes?"

"Yeah. Why?" Iggy said

"I thought people only made those on Thanksgiving?" she said skeptically. He shook his head in exasperation.

"Mashed potatoes are good for any day of the year and anytime of the day!" She gave him a weird look and walked over to the table. I grabbed the sandwiches sitting on the island and put them in three different spots. Iggy brought over the mashed potatoes and scooped some out onto the plates. He sat down with us and we started eating and joking around.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for, you know, me and Iggy getting into a little scuffle.

But, hey, we're guys. What are you gonna do?

**Reviews would be appreciated, but I don't really expect any because of the way I left you guys hanging. But, just so you know, I've been working on my other account (betrayal right there, huh?) honing my writing skills. I think I've at least gotten better! And my other account isn't for Max Ride. **

**SO, review if you want to!**

**See you guys soon! I promise!**

**-MFAFL123-MajorFaxandFangLover123-**


	10. Yet Another Note

Hey guys. So I'm thinking of shortening the length of this story. Originally when I had "planned it out" it was going to be around 30 chapters. Now I'm thinking that maybe I should just do 15 and then come back to it in a year or so and rewrite it.

I mean, after reading Angel and Fang I feel disappointed in the series and a lot of my interest has faded. Especially since Fang was a douche nozzle by going and dating Maya right after breaking up with Max.

WHO DOES THAT? STUPID DOUCHE NOZZLE!

So if you guys think that that's a good idea then I'm gonna need a week or so to rewrite the chapter I already had typed up 'cuz it was just going to lead to a bunch of new problems that just would have made people mad.

Also I feel like this fic has been a bit too dramatic for my taste. So My next chapter will be out soon! Tell me what you think!


	11. A Night at the Diner

"Great work today Ride! Be sure to bring you're A-game for the pre-season against those Knicks!" My coach yelled after me as I left the locker room thoroughly covered in sweat and probably smelling like a pig that's been lounging about in its own shit for three weeks. So sweaty… Kill me now.

Although acting like a drama queen within in the private confines of my mind, I waved a hand over my shoulder in response, and then began pulling my sweatshirt on, alternating which of my hands was holding my duffle.

I shook my head as my hair slid in front of my eyes, keeping it so that I could actually _see_. It had been a few weeks since Max and I had taken to beginning to remodel my old tree house. I had also ended up apologizing to J.J., and explaining to her that I wasn't really able to maintain any sort of romantic relationship at the moment.

Sure, she had said that she had understood, but she had had this knowing gleam in her eyes and I couldn't help but feel that she thought I was telling her I didn't have time for her for some other reason. After that little (awkward) conversation, she had asked me how Max was doing strangely enough. It was kind of weird.

Fishing my keys out of a pocket in my duffle I unlocked the car and threw my bag into the backseat, then hopped into my place in front of the steering wheel. As I made my way to my house, I kept going back to the other day when everyone had come over for a game-night thing. Max had sprayed whip cream all over my face, while Gazzy and Nudge cuddled up against my couch talking quietly. Angel had just been watching me and Max bicker over nothing (as per usual) before breaking out into loud laughter.

I think the funniest moment had to have been when Iggy was playing his new game though. See, a few weeks back, Iggy got the new Legend of Zelda game. I think it's like, Skyward Sword or something. Anyways, so he had just finished kicking the ass of some walking, fiery boulder thing by throwing bombs at it and cutting up its only eye as it rolled away (I bet he loved that), and getting through the next cut scene, which involved Link finally catching up with Zelda before having her straight up leave without really saying anything, when he was told by the random lady in the game that he failed. Big time.

Being the over dramatic moron he is, he had fallen to his knees, moaning about how he had been searching so hard to find her, and "Why didn't she at least give me a kiss on the lips before she left? BITCH!".

And then Ella walks on over and goes, "Hey Iggy? If I were Zelda and you were Link, would you really try so hard to save me? Even if it meant almost dying a few times?" The idiot had sputtered and gotten all red while the rest of us were rolling around on the floor laughing our butts off. Ella batted her eyelashes and pushed her lips into a pout.

"Umm… y-yeah! Of course Ella!" She kissed him on the cheek and he straight up fainted. Yup. Best thing EVER. No competition. Max even got it on camera with her phone. Blackmail much?

Soon I had arrived at my house. As I stepped out of my car, I grabbed my duffle, a pack of gum that had mysteriously appeared in the glove compartment, and my jacket. Swinging the door shut, I locked it and headed inside, looking forward to a nice warm shower.

I put my stuff down on the couch and stuck a stick of gum in my mouth. Nearing my room, I peeled off my sweatshirt, then pulled my sweat-soaked black shirt (attractive, no?) over my head, throwing them both into the large basket in the corner. Suddenly there was a muffled thud.

I froze, then called out, "Hello?" The sound of feet shuffling across carpet was heard from the hallway right outside my room. Max appeared in the doorway, and apparently not ready for my current… er… appearance, closed her eyes and turned around. If I hadn't been so dumbfounded, I probably would've started laughing at her.

"Oh, hey Fang!" she said cheerfully towards the wall.

"Max, what are you doing in my house?" I asked her, thoroughly confused.

"I woke up this morning and couldn't find my last pack of gum anywhere. And I know I'd had it on me a few days ago when I came over, so I just thought I'd try to find it," she said nonchalantly.

"So you just decided to barge into my house? When I wasn't home?" I said, still not fully understanding what went on in that pretty little head of hers.

Um, scratch that. I never said she had a 'pretty little head'.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I figured you wouldn't get mad or anything," she said shrugging. She turned to face me suddenly. "You aren't mad, are you?" Her face was steadily moving closer to mine as she searched my eyes for even a hint of annoyance.

"No! No, it's fine," I said hastily, subtly moving back, my face burning for no real reason. She looked at the ceiling, breaking eye contact with me.

"So, um… are you gonna put a sweatshirt on or what?" she asked. I scratched the back of my head.

"Oh, yeah. Hang on a sec." I walked to my closet and rifled through it, then pulled out a black tee. "I'm done," I called back to her as I pulled the shirt over my head.

"'Kay," she responded. I heard a creaking noise, and guessed that she had sat down on my bed. "Hey, where's that diner we're all going to again?" she asked me as I joined her, stretching my arms and cracking my knuckles.

"Um , if you want, I can just give you a ride there," I offered. I wasn't that great at giving directions.

"Sure!" She rose and walked out of my room. I watched her as she made her way to the stairs, my eyes locked on her figure. Dear lord, what was wrong with me? I stood as well and walked to the doorway, shaking my head free of the confusing thoughts.

"I'm gonna take a shower. So just, entertain yourself, ok?" I called down to her.

"Got it!" she called back, and I could see her plop down onto the couch and grab the remote.

"Be down in twenty!" I called once more before heading to my bathroom.

**-0000-0000-**

Twenty minutes later, I was running down the stairs, my hair still slightly damp, but fresh and, thankfully, not covered in sweat. I dropped onto the couch next to Max, who was cracking up at the television. As I pulled on my socks and shoes, I turned to see what was so funny. Max was watching the Looney Tunes Show, and apparently it was just ending, with Daffy and Bugs freaking out and scratching their backs and chests, because apparently bedbugs were loose in their house. Again.

"Jeez, there is something wrong with you. How can you laugh at that?" I asked teasingly. "Bed bugs are loose in their house! That's just cruel."

Max turned to face me, her brown eyes lively and bright with laughter. My mouth went dry as I looked at her. "But that's what's so funny!" she said, laughing. I shook my head, partly in disbelief and partly because I wasn't thinking straight anymore. I looked at the clock, which read 6:53.

"Come on, let's go," I said, chuckling slightly.

"Ok!" she said, jumping off of the couch and stooping to grab her shoes. I redirected my gaze, my cheeks warming up. Something was wrong with me!

Max sat back down and slid her feet into her shoes, then fiddled with her shirt. We were going to meet up with Iggy and everybody at a little diner called Harold's Place. We were supposed to be there by 7:15, but I wanted to get thee early. It usually wasn't very crowded, so we liked it a lot. No crazy fans to deal with.

"Ok, now I'm ready," she said standing once more, I just nodded and began to walk to the door to the garage. As we slid into my car, and I pulled out of the driveway, I finally noticed Max's car.

"How did I not see that earlier?" I said as we drove past it.

Max just shrugged and said, "Well, you can be pretty unobservant." There was something in her voice that made me look at her for a second.

"What?" I asked her, turning my gaze back to the road.

"Nothing!" she said unconvincingly. I glared at her for a second as we came to a stop sign, and she sighed. "I'm just saying that you can be unobservant!" she snapped. "Do you want a synonym? Fine, how about thick, clueless, selfish? Do those suit your fancy?" Ok she was really mad. And I had no clue why.

"Max, what's wrong?" I asked her, my own anger leaking into my voice. Why was she insulting me? We had been just fine a few minutes ago. We were almost at the diner now.

"Nothing, ok? Nothing's wrong!" She was hurt and apparently it was because of me. As I pulled into the parking lot and into a spot, I finally snapped.

"Well, obviously something's wrong! If there's nothing wrong then why are you fucking yelling at me? I didn't even do anything!" I yelled in frustration. Why the hell did there have to be so much drama?

"You never do anything right, Fang?" Oh, Jesus Christ, there was that line! "Whatever, I'm getting out. We're here, so just… don't talk to me right now, okay?" She said finally, sighing in defeat as she stepped out of my car.

"Max, wait! Wait ok?" she stopped, her hand on the door. "Just tell me what's wrong."

She sat back down slowly, and closed the door. Staring at the dashboard quietly, she avoided making eye contact with me. My hand moved toward her and gently grabbed her wrist. Her shoulders tensed before she slumped back against the seat and finally looked at me, her eyes searching mine. I stared back at her, not sure what she was hoping to find.

"Fang, do you remember that fight we had a month or so ago?" I nodded mutely, not sure just as to where this was headed. "Well, you probably couldn't tell then, or now even, but I was…." She stopped, seemingly unable to say whatever was coming next. Instead she changed tactics.

"Actually, remember when you came to apologize? And what- what happened?" she turned a bit red, and my face went hot. Again I nodded. I still felt slightly ashamed. "Well I… I actually-".

She was cut off as there was a knock on my window; Iggy was standing outside of the door, with Ella, grinning slyly. I sighed and turned back to Max. She seemed some what relieved, but tried to smile apologetically.

"I'll tell you later," she said, before sliding her wrist out from my grip and opening the door again to join her sister. I got out of the car as well and watched as she and Ella walked into the diner, watched them sit down at a booth where Gazzy and Angel were already waiting. I sighed in defeat.

"Sorry man, but she was floundering," Iggy said to me, patting me on the back.

"Yeah," I said.

"Hey you guys!" a peppy voice from behind us called. I turned my head and saw Nudge walking over, a smile on her face. As she saw me though she pouted and said, "Aww, Fang what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said, attempting to make my voice sound normal and my face blank. Her face became stern.

"Don't give me any of that crap! What happened?" she said demandingly, hands on her hips.

"It's just, Max was mad at me, and then she tried to tell me something, and I'm… I'm just really confused," I told her quietly. She seemed pretty confused to. But then her face lit up and she wore a triumphant smirk.

"Well, don't worry about it Fang. I'm sure you'll understand soon!" She said cheerfully. Then she proceeded to grab both mine and Iggy's wrists and dragged us into the diner right behind her.

"Oh, hey guys!" Angel called happily. She motioned for us to sit down and as soon as we did, she began filling us in on the latest events in her life. She had recently gotten a job at the local bakery and she already loved it. Also, she and Gazzy had found a stray kitten and decided to keep her. Her name was speckles and she was, and I quote, "the sweetest, cutest thing in the world!"

Gazzy leaned in so Max, Iggy, and I could hear him while the other three squealed. "Yeah right. Things a demon! Shredded up all of my hoodie pockets!" We all laughed at him as he sat there pouting stubbornly.

After about twenty minutes or so I noticed that Nudge when talking was only gesturing with one hand, while the other stayed under the table on the side that was next to Gazzy. Gazzy was leaning his cheek on his right hand while his left stayed under the table as well.

I smiled slightly, and elbowed Iggy in the ribs. He turned to face me, a questioning expression on his face. I nodded my head in their direction and he noticed the same thing I did, and then grinned wickedly. As the food came around and everyone started to chow down, Iggy brought it up.

"Ok you two," he said, pointing an accusing finger at Nudge and Gazzy. "How long?" Gazzy's face turned pink, while Nudge's mouth hung wide open.

"Wha- what are you talking about?" Gazzy said, attempting to recover.

Iggy wagged a finger in his face. "Nuh-uh. Spill. Now. Or I tell everybody about what really happened at the after game party last year!" Gazzy looked desperately at Nudge, and she just nodded, looking slightly sheepish.

Gazzy sighed in defeat. "Two months," he said quietly. Our booth was quiet for a few moments. Then, suddenly, everybody (excluding me of course) was talking at once.

"What? How could you not tell me!" Ella.

"How did you manage to keep quiet for so long Nudge?" Angel.

"I thought were friends!" Iggy. Idiot.

"Wow, guys!" Max.

As they continued to chatter on, I finally cut in. "Congrats Gazzy. I see you finally got some game." He turned pink again while everybody else, including Nudge just laughed at him.

As the minutes passed and everyone continued to talk and laugh, Max and I hardly said a word to each other.

**-0000-0000-**

**Man! I'm glad I managed to tie up one of the loose ends! As you can see, there's been some hinting at what's coming up in a few chapters or so. So something to look forward to, right? And this story is probably going to be less than 14 chapters so I just thought I'd let you know! But a lot of drama this chapter. And this a good fight. If there weren't any fights, Max and Fang would never accidently blurt things out!**

**We all know how often they tend to do that in this story. **

**So yeah, next chapter will be more on Iggy and Ella, another one of those pesky looses ends, and the chapter after that, probably Max and Fang. The moment we've all been waiting for! So review if you'd like! Do whatever you'd like. But flames, at this point, not really appreciated. So if you could keep those to yourselves, that'd be great! Well, if you have any.**


End file.
